Separating medial olivocochlear from acoustic reflex effects on transient evoked otoacoustic emissions in unanesthetized mice

Abstract

Descending neural pathways in the mammalian auditory system are believed to modulate the function of the peripheral auditory system [3, 8, 10]. These pathways include the medial olivocochlear (MOC) efferent innervation to the cochlear outer hair cells (OHCs) and the acoustic reflex pathways mediating middle ear muscle (MEM) contractions. The MOC effects can be monitored noninvasively using otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) [5, 6], which are acoustic byproducts of cochlear function [7]. In this study, we applied a sensitive method to determine when and to what degree contralateral MEM suppression contaminated MOC efferent effects on TEOAEs in unanesthetized mice. The lowest contralateral broadband noise evoking MEM contractions varied across animals. Examples of potential MOC-mediated TEOAE suppression with contralateral noise below MEM contraction thresholds were seen, but this behavior did not occur in the majority of cases.