Penner M J, Burns E M
Department of Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park 20742.
J Speech Hear Res. 1987 Sep;30(3):396-403. doi: 10.1044/jshr.3003.396.
Spontaneous oto-acoustic emissions (SOAEs) were detected in 10 of 29 subjects with tinnitus. Because measures of the pitch of tinnitus are highly variable, the relation between the frequency composition of the tinnitus and the frequencies of SOAEs can not be known precisely. This raises the question of whether an observed SOAE could be proven to be the physical basis of an audible tinnitus of unspecified composition. To examine this question, subjects with both SOAEs and tinnitus participated in two demonstrations. First, while the tinnitus was reportedly masked by a high-frequency tone, the SOAE was unchanged. Second, while the SOAE was suppressed, the tinnitus was reportedly audible. Although masking and suppression are not equivalent operations, these findings make it likely that the SOAE and the tinnitus are independent phenomena, at least for these subjects. Additional evidence of the dissociation of SOAEs and tinnitus in these subjects is provided by data showing that suppression tuning curves for SOAEs are frequency-specific, whereas tones at any frequency are equally effective in masking the tinnitus.
在29名耳鸣患者中，有10名检测到了自发性耳声发射（SOAE）。由于耳鸣音调的测量结果差异很大，因此无法精确得知耳鸣的频率组成与SOAE频率之间的关系。这就提出了一个问题，即能否证明观察到的SOAE是未明确组成的可听耳鸣的物理基础。为了研究这个问题，同时患有SOAE和耳鸣的受试者参与了两项演示。首先，据报道当耳鸣被高频音掩盖时，SOAE并未改变。其次，当SOAE被抑制时，据报道耳鸣仍可听见。尽管掩蔽和抑制并非等效操作，但这些发现表明，至少对于这些受试者来说，SOAE和耳鸣是独立的现象。这些受试者中SOAE与耳鸣分离的额外证据来自以下数据：SOAE的抑制调谐曲线具有频率特异性，而任何频率的音调在掩蔽耳鸣方面同样有效。
