Contralateral efferent suppression of human hearing sensitivity

The present study aimed at characterizing the suppressing effect of contralateral medial olivocochlear (MOC) efferents on human auditory sensitivity and mechanical cochlear responses at sound levels near behavioral thresholds. Absolute thresholds for pure tones of 500 and 4000 Hz with durations between 10–500 ms were measured in the presence and in the absence of a contralateral broadband noise. The intensity of the noise was fixed at 60 dB SPL to evoke the contralateral MOC reflex without evoking the middle-ear muscle reflex. In agreement with previously reported findings, thresholds measured without the contralateral noise decreased with increasing tone duration, and the rate of decrease was faster at 500 than at 4000 Hz. Contralateral stimulation increased thresholds by 1.07 and 1.72 dB at 500 and 4000 Hz, respectively. The mean increase (1.4 dB) just missed statistical significance (p = 0.08). Importantly, the across-frequency mean threshold increase was significantly greater for long than for short probes. This effect was more obvious at 4000 Hz than at 500 Hz. Assuming that thresholds depend on the MOC-dependent cochlear mechanical response followed by an MOC-independent, post-mechanical detection mechanism, the present results at 4000 Hz suggest that MOC efferent activation suppresses cochlear mechanical responses more at lower than at higher intensities across the range of intensities near threshold, while the results at 500 Hz suggest comparable mechanical suppression across the threshold intensity range. The results are discussed in the context of central masking and of auditory models of efferent suppression of cochlear mechanical responses.