OAEs are sound founds in the external aditory meatus that originate in the cochlea. OAEs are generated only when the organ of corti is in near normal condition and They can be detected only when the middle ear system is operating normally. The sound generated by the cochlea are small but  potentially audible, sometimes as much as 30 dBSPL. They can emerge spontaneously in the cochlea, but more commonly OAEs follow acoustic stimulation. No electrod are needed to  observe OAEs. In fact, microphone are used to detect them.