Glossary of Terms

Measures of middle-ear energy transfer (tympanometry and reflexes).

Involuntary stapedius contraction in response to loud sound.

The lowest sound level that elicits the acoustic reflex.

Sudden inner-ear damage from a single, intense sound.

Developing after birth.

Hearing loss developing after birth.

A sudden, painful middle-ear infection; common in children.

Enlarged adenoids; a cause of Eustachian dysfunction and effusion in children.

Sound transmitted through the outer and middle ear to the inner ear.

Difference between air- and bone-conduction thresholds; marks conductive loss.

Allergic nasal inflammation that can impair Eustachian function.

An inherited syndrome combining hearing loss with kidney disease.

Balancing loudness between the ears to reveal recruitment.

Total loss of hearing in an ear.

Determining threshold by raising level from inaudible upward.

How quickly compression engages and disengages.

Chart plotting hearing thresholds across frequencies.

The shape of hearing loss across frequencies (flat, sloping, notched).

The professional who assesses and manages hearing and balance disorders.

A dip (often at 4 kHz) typical of noise damage on the audiogram.

Systematic improvement in auditory performance over time after amplification.

A decline in neural response to a continuous stimulus over time.

Implant stimulating the cochlear nucleus directly when the nerve is absent (ABI).

Electrophysiological measure of the auditory pathway.

The temporal-lobe region where sound is perceived.

Decline in speech understanding in an ear left unstimulated over time.

Cranial nerve VIII carrying auditory information to the brainstem.

Present OAEs but abnormal ABR, from nerve or neural-synchrony dysfunction.

The brain's separation of a sound mixture into distinct sources.

Objective electrophysiologic test estimating frequency-specific thresholds.

Congenital absence or closure of the ear canal.

A sensation of pressure or blockage in the ear.

Hearing one's own voice or breathing abnormally loudly.

Injury to the middle or inner ear from rapid pressure change.

Cochlear membrane vibrating by region to create tonotopy.

Assessing an infant by observing reflexive responses to sound.

The most common hearing-aid style, worn behind the ear (BTE).

Sudden unilateral facial palsy of unknown cause.

Affecting both sides or both ears.

Listening with a hearing aid in one ear and a cochlear implant in the other.

The brain merging input from both ears into a single percept.

When listening with two ears performs worse than with one.

The brain's separation of speech from spatially separated noise for clearer understanding.

A 2–10 dB gain in sensitivity and loudness from hearing with two ears rather than one.

Tuning-fork test using the occlusion effect to separate conductive vs sensorineural loss.

Sound reaching the inner ear directly via skull vibration.

Transducer delivering sound to the skull for bone-conduction testing.

Device transmitting sound to the inner ear via the skull bone.

Brief vertigo triggered by changes in head position.

Painful inflammation of the eardrum with fluid-filled blisters.

Automatic audiometry in which the patient tracks their own threshold.

Test assessing vestibular response to warm and cool ear stimulation.

An artifactual ~2 kHz bone-conduction dip seen in otosclerosis.

The patient's history and complaints that guide diagnosis.

Difficulty processing sound centrally despite normal peripheral hearing.

A slight threshold shift when noise is added to the opposite ear.

Vertigo from the brainstem or cerebellum, possibly with other neurological signs.

Earwax; a natural secretion protecting the ear canal.

Hardened earwax blocking the ear canal.

A skin cyst in the middle ear that can erode the ossicles.

Long-standing middle-ear disease with persistent perforation and/or discharge.

An objective finding detected on examination or testing.

Snail-shaped inner-ear organ converting sound to neural signals.

The active outer-hair-cell mechanism that boosts faint sounds.

Non-functioning basilar-membrane regions due to inner-hair-cell loss.

Device that electrically stimulates the auditory nerve.

An outer-hair-cell electrical response mirroring the stimulus (preserved in ANSD).

The first auditory relay in the brainstem.

The ability to focus on one talker amid competing background chatter.

Algorithm converting sound into a pattern of electrical stimulation.

An additional disorder co-occurring with the main condition.

The synchronous summed electrical response of the auditory nerve.

The ratio of input dB change to output dB change in a hearing aid.

Hearing Loss originating in the outer or middle ear.

Present from birth.

A leading infectious cause of congenital sensorineural hearing loss (CMV).

Hearing loss present from birth.

The gene behind the most common inherited, nonsyndromic hearing loss.

Late responses reflecting cortical auditory processing (e.g., P300).

The frequency width that governs masking and frequency resolution.

System routing sound from the deaf ear to the better ear in unilateral loss.

Hearing the test tone in the non-test ear.

Logarithmic unit of sound intensity.

Classification by threshold: normal, mild, moderate, severe and profound.

Presenting different stimuli to each ear to assess central processing.

The process of distinguishing conditions with similar features.

Perceiving the same tone at a different pitch in each ear.

Microphone system favoring sound from the front over the sides and back.

Unsteadiness or imbalance without a spinning sensation.

Two-tone otoacoustic emissions probing frequency-specific cochlear function.

Positional test that provokes posterior-canal BPPV.

Usable range between threshold and the uncomfortable level.

Difficulty swallowing.

Impaired voice quality or hoarseness.

The passage from the pinna to the eardrum that channels sound.

Custom-fit piece coupling a hearing aid to the ear and channeling sound.

Minimum noise in the non-test ear that just masks the test signal.

Recording of early electrical responses from the cochlea and auditory nerve.

Array placed in the cochlea that stimulates the auditory nerve.

The +80 mV potential in scala media that powers hair-cell transduction.

Potassium-rich inner-ear fluid filling the cochlear duct.

Raised endolymph pressure in the inner ear, underlying Ménière's disease.

The most common inner-ear malformation, causing progressive or fluctuating loss.

Repositioning maneuver that clears displaced otoliths in BPPV.

Volume between probe and eardrum; large values may indicate perforation or a tube.

The cause or origin of a disease.

Canal linking the middle ear to the nasopharynx that equalizes pressure.

Bony ear-canal growths from cold-water exposure (surfer's ear).

Cranial nerve VII, running through the temporal bone, supplying the facial muscles and stapedius.

Loss of facial-nerve function, which can complicate ear disease or surgery.

The whistle produced when amplified sound leaks back into the microphone.

Hearing loss that shifts better and worse over time.

Resonant frequencies that define vowel identity.

Vibrations per second; determines pitch, measured in hertz.

Shifting inaudible high frequencies into an audible range.

The distribution of a hearing aid's gain across frequency.

The cochlea's sharpness in separating nearby frequencies.

Exaggerated or feigned loss without an organic cause.

Amount of amplification a hearing aid provides.

Tuning-fork and pressure test assessing stapes fixation in otosclerosis.

A vascular middle-ear/temporal-bone tumor causing pulsatile tinnitus (paraganglioma).

A decline in response to a repeated stimulus, used in tinnitus/vestibular therapy.

Bedside test of the VOR using rapid head turns.

Attenuation of sound — especially highs — reaching the far ear because of the head.

Electronic device amplifying sound to compensate for hearing loss.

Decibel scale normalized to normal hearing, where 0 dB HL is normal.

Opening at the cochlear apex where scala vestibuli and tympani meet.

Vertigo or nystagmus provoked by pressure applied in the ear canal.

Testing above 8 kHz to catch early cochlear damage.

Reduced tolerance to ordinary sound levels.

Of unknown cause.

The opposition a medium offers to the transfer of sound energy.

The middle ear's compensation for the air-to-fluid impedance mismatch.

Magnet holding the external coil aligned with the internal unit.

Custom-shell hearing aid filling the outer ear (ITE).

The rate of new cases arising over a given period.

A finding discovered by chance during unrelated testing.

The middle ossicle (anvil), between the malleus and stapes.

The principal auditory processing center in the midbrain.

Primary sensory cells converting vibration into neural signals.

Earphone placed in the canal, offering high interaural attenuation.

The real gain a hearing aid adds within the ear canal.

The power or loudness of sound, expressed in decibels.

Energy a sound loses crossing from one ear to the other; key to masking decisions.

Difference in level between the ears; cues high-frequency localization.

Difference in arrival time at the two ears; cues low-frequency localization.

Congenital hearing loss combined with a long-QT heart rhythm.

Inflammation of the inner-ear labyrinth causing vertigo and hearing loss.

The voice-producing organ at the top of the windpipe.

Time from stimulus to response; critical in ABR interpretation.

A six-sound quick check of hearing across the speech range.

The perceived magnitude of a sound, based on intensity.

Soft-tissue imaging used for retrocochlear pathology (MRI).

Severe skull-base-invading ear-canal infection in diabetic or immunocompromised patients.

The outermost ossicle (hammer), attached to the eardrum.

Individualized programming of the cochlear-implant electrodes.

Adding noise so the non-test ear does not respond.

Inability to mask adequately in bilateral conductive loss.

Improved signal detection in noise from phase differences; a measure of binaural processing.

Air-cell bone behind the ear connected to the middle ear.

Surgery clearing the mastoid air cells for infection or cholesteatoma.

The highest output level a hearing aid can produce.

Thalamic nucleus relaying auditory information to the cortex.

A congenitally small or underdeveloped pinna.

Air-filled cavity between the eardrum and inner ear housing the ossicles.

Implant that directly vibrates the ossicles or the oval window.

A strong negative emotional reaction to specific sounds.

Combination of conductive and sensorineural components.

The central bony axis of the cochlea housing the spiral ganglion.

A congenital inner-ear malformation with an incompletely coiled cochlea.

The intensity at which speech is most comfortable to hear.

Surgery repairing only a hole in the eardrum.

A small incision in the eardrum to drain fluid.

Inner-ear disorder with episodic vertigo, fluctuating hearing loss and tinnitus.

A deviation of the nasal septum.

A cancer to suspect behind unilateral middle-ear effusion in adults.

The upper throat behind the nose where the Eustachian tube opens.

A genetic disorder marked by bilateral vestibular schwannomas.

Early infant hearing screening using OAE and/or ABR.

Hearing-aid algorithm that suppresses background noise for comfort.

Permanent hair-cell damage from exposure to loud sound.

Inherited hearing loss occurring alone, without other features.

Involuntary rhythmic eye movement; key in vestibular findings.

Tinnitus that an examiner can also hear (vascular or muscular).

Repeated airway blockage causing breathing pauses during sleep.

Louder low-frequency bone-conducted sound when the ear is occluded.

Efferent nerve fibers that modulate the outer hair cells.

A non-occluding fitting that reduces the occlusion effect.

The sensory organ of hearing sitting on the basilar membrane.

The perception that the visual scene bounces with head movement.

Malleus, incus and stapes: three tiny bones conducting sound inward.

Ear pain.

Inflammation of the ear canal (swimmer's ear).

Inflammation of the middle ear; a common cause of conductive loss.

Fluid in the middle ear without acute infection (glue ear).

Sounds from outer hair cells reflecting cochlear health.

Calcium-carbonate crystals in the utricle and saccule sensing gravity and acceleration.

Utricle and saccule, sensing linear acceleration and gravity.

Discharge draining from the ear.

Bone disorder fixing the stapes and causing conductive hearing loss.

Visual examination of the ear canal and eardrum with an otoscope.

Damage to the inner ear from certain drugs, causing hearing or balance loss.

Sensory cells that actively amplify sound — the cochlear amplifier.

Membrane where the stapes transmits vibration into inner-ear fluid.

When masking noise becomes loud enough to also shift the test ear.

Hearing paradoxically better in noisy surroundings, classic for otosclerosis.

The mechanism of dysfunction a disease produces in the body.

A persistently open Eustachian tube causing autophony and audible breathing.

A genetic syndrome pairing hearing loss with a thyroid goiter.

Inner-ear fluid in the scala vestibuli and scala tympani.

Abnormal opening leaking perilymph between the inner and middle ear.

Vertigo from the inner ear or vestibular nerve — often intense but benign.

A permanent threshold rise from noise damage.

The smallest sound unit that distinguishes meaning in a language.

Word lists reflecting a language's phoneme distribution, used in word recognition.

Fear of or aversion to sound.

The outer ear flap that collects and funnels sound into the canal.

The perceived highness of a sound, based on frequency.

Test in which a child responds to sound with a play action.

Otoscopy assessing eardrum mobility by applying air pressure.

Equalizing middle-ear pressure by forcing air through the nose.

Objective test of balance (postural) control.

A small congenital pit or tract in front of the ear.

Age-related sensorineural hearing loss.

Age-related decline in vestibular and balance function.

Target methods (NAL, DSL) that set hearing-aid gain from thresholds.

The proportion of a population with a condition at a given time.

The fixed tone used in tympanometry to measure middle-ear response.

The likely course and outcome of a disease.

A factor that influences the likely course of a disease.

Hearing loss that worsens over time.

The bulge on the middle-ear wall formed by the basal turn of the cochlea.

Electrical test of nerve response in cochlear-implant candidacy.

Rhythmic tinnitus synchronized with the pulse, suggesting a vascular cause.

Core test measuring the softest audible intensity across frequencies.

Average of thresholds at 500, 1000 and 2000 Hz.

Herpes zoster causing facial palsy, ear pain, vesicles and hearing loss.

Verifying hearing-aid output in the actual ear.

Acoustic difference between a person's ear and the measurement coupler (RECD).

The hearing-aid component that converts the signal to sound in the ear.

Slim, popular style with the receiver placed in the canal (RIC).

Implanted internal unit delivering the signal to the electrodes.

Abnormally rapid growth of loudness as intensity rises.

Weakening of the reflex during sustained sound; a retrocochlear sign.

A therapy process aimed at compensating for lost function.

Thin membrane separating scala media from scala vestibuli.

Natural amplification of ~2.5–3 kHz by the ear canal.

An inward-collapsed pocket of the eardrum that can lead to cholesteatoma.

Pertaining to sites beyond the cochlea — the nerve or central pathway.

Tuning-fork test comparing air and bone conduction.

A factor that increases the likelihood of a disease.

A drop in word-recognition score as intensity rises; may signal retrocochlear pathology.

Standing test with eyes closed to assess balance and proprioception.

Second membrane allowing fluid movement within the cochlea.

The middle cochlear duct containing endolymph and the organ of Corti.

Lower perilymph channel ending at the round window.

Upper perilymph channel beginning at the oval window.

Reddish promontory seen through the eardrum in active otosclerosis.

A quick preliminary test to identify those needing full assessment.

Three fluid-filled canals sensing rotational head movement.

The level of a sound in dB above an individual's own threshold.

A test's ability to correctly identify those with the condition.

Hearing Loss due to the inner ear or auditory nerve.

A lasting effect following a disease or injury.

Test of detecting small intensity increments, indicating cochlear loss.

The dB difference between speech and background noise.

Inflammation of the paranasal sinuses.

Loudspeaker-based testing without earphones.

Locating a sound source using interaural time and level differences.

Decibel scale referenced to physical sound pressure.

Improved understanding when speech and noise are spatially separated.

A test's ability to correctly identify those without the condition.

Tests measuring the ability to detect and understand speech.

The banana-shaped area on the audiogram where speech sounds fall.

Lowest level at which speech is detected 50% of the time.

Ability to correctly identify speech; the older name for word recognition.

External unit that codes sound and sends it to the implant's internal part.

Lowest level where about 50% of speech is repeated correctly.

Test of speech understanding against background noise.

Structure holding the cell bodies of auditory-nerve neurons.

Surgery replacing the fixed stapes with a prosthesis in otosclerosis.

Middle-ear muscle on the stapes responsible for the acoustic reflex.

The smallest bone in the body, coupling to the oval window.

A measure of the middle-ear system's flexibility.

Test that exposes unilateral functional or exaggerated hearing loss.

Hair-bundle projections that open ion channels when deflected.

Vascular tissue producing endolymph and the endocochlear potential.

Sensorineural loss developing within 72 hours; treated as an emergency.

An ECochG cochlear component that increases in endolymphatic hydrops.

A 'third-window' syndrome from a gap in the superior semicircular canal bone.

The first center where binaural information is combined.

Standard audiometric earphone resting on the pinna.

A subjective complaint the patient experiences.

Gelatinous flap contacting the hair-cell stereocilia.

Magnetic receiver linking a hearing aid to an induction loop.

Status and impedance measurement between implant and processor.

Bone-detail imaging, the mainstay for otologic disease.

Masking of a sound by another occurring just before or after it.

The auditory system's ability to detect rapid changes in sound over time.

A temporary, reversible threshold rise after noise exposure.

Threshold-equalizing-noise test used to detect cochlear dead regions.

Middle-ear muscle on the malleus that tenses the eardrum.

Lowest level at which a sound is detected about 50% of the time.

The quality or 'color' of a sound arising from its frequency content.

Perception of sound without an external source.

Test of the fading of a sustained tone, a retrocochlear sign.

Orderly mapping of frequencies along the cochlea and auditory pathway.

Inflammation of the tonsils.

Device converting an electrical signal to sound or vice versa — earphone, bone vibrator, loudspeaker.

Click-evoked otoacoustic emissions, common in screening.

Magnetic external coil transmitting the signal across the skin.

Wave moving along the basilar membrane, peaking by frequency.

A syndrome of craniofacial and ear malformation causing conductive loss.

Sound-induced vertigo or nystagmus, seen in canal dehiscence and perilymph fistula.

The eardrum: membrane separating outer and middle ear that vibrates with sound.

A hole in the eardrum that can cause conductive loss and discharge.

Needle aspiration of middle-ear fluid for diagnosis or treatment.

The tympanometry graph of middle-ear pressure and compliance (types A/B/C).

Measurement of middle-ear and eardrum mobility.

Surgery repairing the eardrum and/or middle-ear system.

Calcification of the eardrum or middle ear that can cause conductive loss.

A small tube placed in the eardrum to drain middle-ear fluid.

The level at which sound becomes uncomfortably loud.

Affecting one side or one ear.

Hearing loss affecting only one ear.

Combined congenital hearing loss and progressive vision loss (retinitis pigmentosa).

Forced exhalation against a closed nose and mouth to open the Eustachian tube.

Vestibular test assessing otolith organ and nerve function.

Air channel in an earmold reducing pressure and occlusion.

Illusory sensation of spinning or movement.

Recurrent vertigo episodes associated with migraine.

Sudden severe vertigo from inflammation of the vestibular nerve.

Exercise-based therapy to reduce dizziness and balance problems.

Benign retrocochlear tumor of the vestibulocochlear nerve (acoustic neuroma).

Inner-ear system responsible for balance.

Reflex stabilizing gaze during head movement (VOR).

Feeling low-frequency, high-intensity sound as vibration rather than hearing it.

Battery assessing balance by recording eye movements.

Infant behavioral test pairing sound with a visual reward (VRA).

The vibrating tissues in the larynx that produce voice (vocal cords).

A syndrome of hearing loss with pigment changes (white forelock, blue eyes).

The most robust ABR wave, used for threshold estimation.

Tuning-fork test judging which ear a midline tone lateralizes to.

Hearing-aid processing amplifying soft sounds more than loud ones.

Assessing the middle ear across a broad frequency band rather than a single tone.

Percentage of words identified correctly at a comfortable level.