Steady-state analysis of auditory evoked potentials over a wide range of stimulus repetition rates: Profile in adults

Abstract

The analysis methods used in this paper may give information that will have application for clinical testing. Of pragmatic importance is that the rate profile could be determined without subjective wave identification and/or interpretation, and thus by a method that is inherently more objective than conventional AEP tests.

Steady-state analysis of auditory evoked potentials over a wide range of stimulus repetition rates: Profile in children vs. adults

“…Detailed descriptions of and rationales for the various methods employed in this investigation are presented in Tlumak et al (2011). Nevertheless, a reasonably detailed summary of the methods is provided here for the reader ' s convenience.…”

“…Other than age, these adults had the same subject characteristics as the children described above (Tlumak et al, 2011).…”

“…Thereafter, responses were analysed via a combination of time-ensemble averaging (in the same way as transient AEPs) and spectral analysis (in the same way as conventional ASSRs). Thus, given the relatively low numbers of stimulus repetitions that proved effi cacious for the current generation of instrumentation/software package for the lowest repetition rates, these responses were described conservatively in the original report (Tlumak et al, 2011) as "quasi-steady-state" but herein referred to simply as "steady-state". suggests substantive differences in cortical maturation between children and adults.…”

“…However, substantial groundwork is needed to develop such a method, specifi cally one that permits a more consistent approach across latency windows and, at least for some purposes, response measurement devoid of a-priori assumptions of response waveform and traditional "peak picking". The fi rst step in developing this groundwork has been reported by Tlumak et al (2011).…”

“…Recently, an adaptation of the steady-state stimulation and response approach has been developed to incorporate a much broader range of repetition rates or modulation frequencies (F ms ), namely to embrace responses potentially related to longer-latency obligatory responses, especially late-latency AEPs (Tlumak et al, 2011). Findings in young adults using the method described demonstrate effi cacy of the approach via a unifi ed test and analysis, rather than effectively several different tests (apropos the classically defi ned ABR, MLR, and LLR).…”