Extraction of Distortion-product Otoacoustic Emission Source Components and its Relevance for Objective Audiometry

Distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) arise as byproduct of nonlinear amplification in the cochlea in response to two stimulus tones of different frequencies. They are assumed to comprise mainly two components, a nonlinear-distortion component and a coherent-reflection component, which may cause wave interference in recordings with conventional, continuous stimulus tones, hampering the accuracy of DPOAEs when evaluating cochlear function. Here, DPOAEs are recorded with short stimulus pulses enabling the separation of the two source components in the time domain. Comparison with conventional stimulation endorses the importance of reliable source separation when using DPOAEs in clinical audiometry or research.