OUTER HAIR CELL FUNCTION

Implications for Hearing Aid Fittings

Traditional View

Historical Overview of 
Cochlear Function

Another Major Discovery Supporting Active Process 
in the Cochlea

OK…Very Interesting, BUT….

So are we convinced there is some relationship worth our understanding?????

Then Carry on with the discussion……..

So what does loss of OHC function have to do with fitting hearing aids????

Read Chap 8….

Explain relationship with three types of hearing loss and type of hearing aid fitting

Type I____________??

Type II____________??

Type III___________???

Type 1 Hearing Loss

  • Degree of Loss
  • AE present __________
  • Loss of __________ Hair cells, normal __________ Hair Cells
  • Loudness Growth
  • Loss of sensitivity for________ Sounds
  • Need amplification of ________ Sounds

Loudness Growth-Type I Loss

  •     Fig 8-13 (Berlin, 1996)

Type II Hearing Loss

  • Degree of Loss
  • OAE present ____________?
  • Loss of __________ Hair cells, Loss of __________ Hair Cells
  • Loudness Growth is __________
  • Loss of sensitivity for __________    Sounds
  • Need amplification of ___________ Sounds
  • Speech Recognition________________

Loudness Growth-Type II Loss

  •         Fig8-13 (Berlin, 1996)

Type III Hearing Loss

  • Degree of Loss
  • OAE present?? _____________
  • Loss of __________ Hair cells, Loss of ____________ Hair Cells
  • Loudness Growth?_____
  • Loss of sensitivity for ___________ Sounds
  • Need amplification of ___________ Sounds
  • Speech Recognition____________
  • Dynamic Range_____________

Loudness Growth-Type III Loss

            Fig 8-13 (Berlin, 1996)

Consider…..effect of OHC

  • Ruggero & Rich (1991)    Fig. 8-18 (Berlin, 1996)
  • Compare HA to OHC amplifier  Table 8-2 (Berlin, 1996)

Hearing Aid Fittings

  • Type I Loss____________________
  • Type II Loss____________________
  • Type III Loss____________________

Restoring loudness for Type I Loss

Fig 8-17, 8-20, 8-21 (Berlin, 1996)

New Info on “Dead Regions in the Cochlea”-Brian Moore et al. (2000)

          Role of IHC-

  • Transduce ___________ vibrations in the cochlear into neural activity
  • Role of OHC-

  • Enhance the sensitivity to ___________ sounds by
  • Increasing the response on the BM for freq close to CF
  • Increase sharpness of ___________ on the BM
  • Produce a ___________ (compressive) I/O function for freq close to CD
  • Contribute to production of ___________ tones

Damage to IHC-

  • Less efficient ___________ of mechanical vibration into neural activity
  • Loss of sensitivity
  • Reduced information flow in the ___________ (___________ transmission)
  • In extreme cases..no transduction of activity at some regions of BM- ___________ regions

Damage to OHC-

  • Reduced sensitivity to ___________ sounds
  • Reduced sharpess of ___________ on the BM
  • More ___________ I/O functions on BM, ie loudness ___________
  • ___________ of Combination tones…

Note that threshold elevation

  • Can occur as a result of ___________ or ___________ damage, or a mixture of the two

  •  
  • Moore developed test to detect ___________ regions

Test for Dead Regions

  • Measure thresholds in ___________
  • Measure thresholds in ___________ noise
  • If thresholds shift more than ____ dB more than normal shift…there is a dead region.
  • If HL >80 dB, nearly ___________ dead regions

Implications for fitting HAs?