The effect of broadband noise on the human brainstem auditory evoked response. II. Frequency specificity

J Acoust Soc Am. 1983 Oct;74(4):1214-23. doi: 10.1121/1.390025.

Abstract

A series of experiments evaluated the effects of broadband noise (ipsilateral) on wave V of the brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) elicited by tone bursts or clicks in the presence of high-pass masking noise. Experiment 1 used 1000- and 4000-Hz, 60-dB nHL tone bursts in the presence of broadband noise. With increasing noise level, wave V latency shift was greater for the 1000-Hz tone bursts, while amplitude decrements were similar for both tone-burst frequencies. Experiment 2 varied high-pass masker cutoff frequency and the level of subtotal masking in the presence of 50-dB nHL clicks. The effects of subtotal masking on wave V (increase in latency and decrease in amplitude) increased with increasing derived-band frequency. Experiment 3 covaried high-pass masker cutoff frequency and subtotal masking level for 1000- and 4000-Hz tone-burst stimuli. The effect of subtotal masking on wave V latency was reduced for both tone-burst frequencies when the response-generating region of the cochlear partition was limited by high-pass maskers. The results of these three experiments suggest that most of the wave V latency shift associated with increasing levels of broadband noise is mediated by a place mechanism when the stimulus is a moderate intensity (60 dB nHL), low-frequency (1000 Hz) tone burst. However, the interpretation of the latency shifts produced by broadband noise for 4000-Hz tone-burst stimuli is made more complex by multiple technical factors discussed herein.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation
  • Brain Stem / physiology
  • Cochlea / physiology
  • Evoked Potentials, Auditory*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Noise*
  • Perceptual Masking / physiology*
  • Reaction Time