Olivocochlear efferent suppression in classical musicians.

Suppression of transient-evoked otoacoustic emissions was recorded from 29 members of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and 28 non-musician control subjects matched for age and gender. Binaural broad band noise was used as the suppressor stimulus in a forward masking paradigm. Results showed musicians to have significantly more suppression than non-musicians for both the right and left ears.