Wirelessly posted
OAEs are, and I'm serious about this, very soft sounds that inner ear hair cells make. Equipment can pick up the sounds in response to a stimulus. The presence of OAE in the presence of hearing loss indicates that the part of the hearing pathway that is damaged is NOT the hair cells.
ABR or ASSR test the auditory nerve and auditory cortex. So in conditions like auditory neuropathy, much of the problem is not with the hair cells but with the auditory nerve.
