[HTML][HTML] Impaired speech perception in noise with a normal audiogram: No evidence for cochlear synaptopathy and no relation to lifetime noise exposure

H Guest, KJ Munro, G Prendergast, RE Millman… - Hearing research, 2018 - Elsevier
In rodents, noise exposure can destroy synapses between inner hair cells and auditory
nerve fibers (“cochlear synaptopathy”) without causing hair cell loss. Noise-induced
cochlear synaptopathy usually leaves cochlear thresholds unaltered, but is associated with
long-term reductions in auditory brainstem response (ABR) amplitudes at medium-to-high
sound levels. This pathophysiology has been suggested to degrade speech perception in
noise (SPiN), perhaps explaining why SPiN ability varies so widely among audiometrically …