Place-specific derived cochlear microphonics from human ears.

The high-pass noise masking technique was used to obtain derived frequency-specific cochlear microphonics (CM) from subtracted waveforms to rarefaction and condensation stimuli recorded with a tympanic membrane electrode. Two characteristics suggest that the response is place-specific CM: the derived response retains the same frequency as the stimulating toneburst and the response follows the stimulus polarity. For click stimulation, derived neural responses make the place-specific CM difficult to observe except in the 2-1 kHz derived band. In contrast, place-specific CM evoked by 0.5 and 1 kHz tonebursts can usually be detected in at least three derived bands. The amplitude of the response is largest in the derived band with center-frequency (CF) just above that of the toneburst. This discovery of a place-specific CM offers the possibility of assessing (outer) hair cell function in the apical part of the human cochlea.