ASHA Learning Pass

The audiogram is a poor representation of a person’s underlying otopathology and can therefore be a poor predictor of a person’s hearing impairment. For example, persons with audiometric thresholds within normal limits may experience hearing impairment such as difficulty hearing in noise. Cochlear synaptopathy and outer hair cell dysfunction are two otopathologies undetected by the standard audiogram (a.k.a. Hidden Hearing Loss), but outer hair cell function plays a primary role in hearing in noise performance. A third undetected otopathology is cochlear untuning, which occurs secondary to outer hair cell damage. This course discusses each of these otopathologies and presents clinical normative data that can be used to differentially diagnose each otopathology.

This course is a recorded session from the 2021 ASHA Convention Virtual Library (session 2144V).

Learning Outcomes
You will be able to:

• Identify three forms of otopathologies from an audiogram 
• Distinguish between cochlear synaptopathy, outer hair cell dysfunction, and cochlear untuning 
• Discuss the correlations between outer hair cell function, hearing in noise performance, and audiometric thresholds

Presenter Information

Mark A. Parker, PhD, CCC-A, F-AAA (Presenting Author), is an Assistant Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. Parker’s overall program of research seeks to develop more effective treatments for hearing loss and deafness. Parker’s research is based on basic science and clinical applications of this science to better measure and treat human hearing loss.

Financial Disclosures:

• No financial relationships relevant to the content of the session

Nonfinancial Disclosures:

• No nonfinancial relationships relevant to the content of the session

Assessment Type

Self-assessment—Think about what you learned and report on the Completion Form how you will use your new knowledge.

To earn continuing education credit, you must complete the learning assessment by March 9, 2028.

Program History and CE Information

Content origination date: November 2021
End date: March 9, 2028