Latency of contralateral sound-evoked auditory efferent suppression of otoacoustic emissions.

The suppression of transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions by contralateral sound stimulation is thought to occur as a result of the action of the efferent pathway from the superior olivary complex to the cochlea via the medial olivo-cochlear neurons. The purpose of this study was to determine the time taken for this pathway to activate the suppressive mechanism in response to contralateral sound in normal human subjects. The time for onset of suppression was found to be between 7 and 20 ms.