The emergence and disappearance of one subject's spontaneous otoacoustic emissions

Objective: This paper documents the appearance and disappearance of multiple, intense spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) in one subject who previously had no measurable SOAEs. Design: A subject, who had no spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) from 4/24/93 to 5/24/93, displayed 10 SOAEs on 5/26/93 (day 1). The SOAEs of the subject were tracked for 342 days. Results: On day 85, the SOAEs had all vanished. Thereafter, no stable SOAEs appeared. However, on days 94 and 99 one SOAE was intermittently measured in the left ear. Conclusions: These data seem to indicate that some SOAEs may be caused by reversible disturbances of active transduction mechanisms, and that not all SOAEs are heritable. Because the subject had been exposed to loud music on the night preceding the emergence of the SOAEs, the putative cause of the SOAEs may have been exposure to loud sound.