Changes in oto-acoustic emissions after exposure to live music

Distortion Product Oto-acoustic Emissions (DPOAE) and Transient Evoked Oto-acoustic Emissions (TEOAE) were measured in subjects before and after attendance to live music. The changes measured were compared to the exposure levels measured at the position of the subject. The main objectives of this experiment were two fold: 1) to assess the validity of the proposed measurement protocol to measure changes in DPOAE and TEOAE after a concert; 2) to test the reliability of the oto-acoustic emission measurement system under field conditions; Initial results shows that it is possible to measure changes in hearing after exposures of relative short duration (1.5 hours). There are large individual differences both in sound exposure levels as well as in the changes on oto-acoustic emissions produced by similar exposures. Current results will be presented.