Growth of suppression using distortion-product otoacoustic emission measurements in hearing-impaired humans

Growth of distortion-product otoacoustic emission suppression was measured in 65 subjects with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss (HI). Measurements were made at four probe frequencies (f(2)) and up to five L-2 levels. Eleven suppressor frequencies (f(3)) were used for each f(2), L-2 combination. These data were compared to data from normal-hearing (NH) subjects (Gorga et al., 2011a). In both NH and HI subjects, growth of suppression depended on the relation between f(2) and f(3), such that the slope was close to one when f(3) approximate to f(2), steeper than one when f(3) < f(2), and shallower than one when f(3) > f(2). Differences in growth of suppression between NH and HI subjects were not observed for fixed f(2), L-2 combinations, however large differences were observed in suppressor "threshold" when compared at the same probe sensation level (dB SL). Smaller group differences were observed when compared at the same probe sound-pressure level (dB SPL). Therefore, the extent of these differences depended on how probe level (L-2) was specified. When the results from NH and HI subjects are compared with each other and with psychophysical studies of masking, differences are observed that have implications for the remediation of mild-to-moderate hearing loss. (C) 2012 Acoustical Society of America. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/1.4754526]