Assessment of the Medial olivocochlear reflex using Electrocochleography in Humans

The medial olivocochlear (MOC) reflex inhibits cochlear amplifier gain and may facilitate speech understanding in background noise by adjusting cochlear gain according to the local soundscape¹ . • Otoacoustic emissions (OAE) are the most common measurement for assessing MOC reflex function in humans¹. • Electrocochleography (ECochG) may be sensitive to MOC function through measurement of the compound action potential (CAP)2 and cochlear microphonic (CM)3. • CAP and CM measures of MOC function complement OAE-based measures, as ECochG reveals the effect of the MOC reflex on the signal reaching the auditory nerve and cochlear hair cells. • This project reviews ECochG-based measures of MOC function from several recent studies in our laboratory.