The influence of injected AC and DC currents on spontaneous otoacoustic emissions in the bobtail lizard.

Spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs) are accepted as being indicators of an active process in the inner ear and have been observed in all groups of land vertebrates. Previous studies have indicated that there may be more than one cellular substrate driving the active processes in different groups of vertebrates. To investigate the cellular substrate in non-mammals and to relate the findings to studies in mammalian ears, we injected AC and DC currents of amplitudes generally below 5 microA into scala media of the bobtail skink Tiliqua rugosa and recorded their influences on SOAEs.