A direct approach for the design of chirp stimuli used for the recording of auditory brainstem responses

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Vol. 128; no. 5; pp. 2955 - 2964
• Main Authors: Elberling, Claus, Don, Manuel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville, NY Acoustical Society of America 01.11.2010; American Institute of Physics
• Subjects: Acoustic Stimulation - instrumentation; Acoustic Stimulation - methods; Audition; Biological and medical sciences; Brain stem; Cochlea - physiology; Cochlear Nerve - physiology; Cochlear Nucleus - physiology; Equipment Design; Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem - physiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Models, Neurological; Perception; Physiological Acoustics; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time - physiology; Brain stem; Hearing
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524; 1520-9024; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.3489111

A recent study evaluates auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) evoked by chirps of different durations (sweeping rates) [ Elberling ( 2010 ). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 128 , 215-223 ]. The study demonstrates that shorter chirps are most efficient at higher levels of stimulation whereas longer chirps are most efficient at lower levels. Mechanisms other than the traveling wave delay, in particular, upward spread of excitation and changes in cochlear-neural delay with level, are suggested to be responsible for these findings. As a consequence, delay models based on estimates of the traveling wave delay are insufficient for the design of chirp stimuli, and another delay model based on a direct approach is therefore proposed. The direct approach uses ABR-latencies from normal-hearing subjects in response to octave-band chirps over a wide range of levels. The octave-band chirps are constructed by decomposing a broad-band chirp, and constitute a subset of the chirp. The delay compensations of the proposed model are similar to those found in the previous experimental study, which thus verifies the results of the proposed model.