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Updated: Nov 1, 2025

Neuro-rehabilitation Approach for Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss
Published on: January 25, 2016
Age-related central gain compensation for reduced auditory nerve output for people with normal audiograms, with and
Peter T Johannesen1,2, Enrique A Lopez-Poveda1,2,3
1Instituto de Neurociencias de Castilla y León, Universidad de Salamanca, Calle Pintor Fernando Gallego 1, 37007 Salamanca, Spain.
Abstract:
Central gain compensation for reduced auditory nerve output has been hypothesized as a mechanism for tinnitus with a normal audiogram. Here, we investigate if gain compensation occurs with aging. For 94 people (aged 12-68 years, 64 women, 7 tinnitus) with normal or close-to-normal audiograms, the amplitude of wave I of the auditory brainstem response decreased with increasing age but was not correlated with wave V amplitude after accounting for age-related subclinical hearing loss and cochlear damage, a result indicative of age-related gain compensation. The correlations between age and wave I/III or III/V amplitude ratios suggested that compensation occurs at the wave III generator site. For each one of the seven participants with non-pulsatile tinnitus, the amplitude of wave I, wave V, and the wave I/V amplitude ratio were well within the confidence limits of the non-tinnitus participants. We conclude that increased central gain occurs with aging and is not specific to tinnitus.
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