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Updated: Oct 8, 2025

Author Spotlight: Optimizing EAS with Long Electrodes for Enhanced Cochlear Coverage and Hearing Preservation
Published on: October 11, 2024
Whistling While it Works: Spontaneous Otoacoustic Emissions and the Cochlear Amplifier
1Caruso Department of Otolaryngology and Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Southern California, California, Los Angeles, 90033, USA. christopher.shera@gmail.com.
Abstract:
Perhaps the most striking evidence for active processes operating within the inner ears of mammals and non-mammals alike is their ability to spontaneously produce sound. Predicted by Thomas Gold in 1948, some 30 years prior to their discovery, the narrow-band sounds now known as spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) remain incompletely understood, their origins controversial. Without a single equation in the main text, we review the essential concepts underlying the "local-" and "global-oscillator" frameworks for understanding SOAE generation. Comparing their key assumptions and predictions, we relate the two frameworks to unresolved questions about the biophysical mechanisms of cochlear amplification.
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