Heritability of Spontaneous Otoacoustic Emissions
Spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOEs) are narrow-band signals emitted from the cochlea and measured in the ear canal with a sensitive microphone. Because these emissions are correlated with sex and because sex is genetically determined, Bilger et al. (1990) hypothesized that SOEs were inherited. This twin study was planned to pursue their idea. A total of 60 sets of twins with essentially normal hearing were examined for SOEs to determine whether they were inherited. There were 30 sets of monozygotic (MZ) and 30 sets of same-sex, dizygotic (DZ) twins with an equal number of female and male twins in each twin group. Their ages ranged from 5 years 7 months to 40 years 5 months. Zygosity was determined by means of a questionnaire (Lykken et al., 1990).
Health Sciences, Audiology, Biology, Genetics
University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign
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University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign