Auditory Evoked Responses in Severe Head Injury

Pediatric Auditory Brainstem Responses in Intensive Care Units

“…Confirmation of brainstem dysfunction secondary to elevated ICP, even without a CT finding of transtentorial herniation (rostral brainstem compression), is a unique clinical advantage of the ABR. 13,17,18 Although CNS assessment was the primary purpose of ABR measurement, initial recordings also indicated peripheral unilateral otological disease. Peripheral auditory abnormalities must always be considered in the interpretation of ABR in traumatic head injury, since the majority of patients will have middle ear or sensorineural dysfunction, or both.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] During this same period, the ABR and other evoked response modalities have been applied in the intensive care unit (ICU) with acute brain-injured adults. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] There are, however, few articles describing ABR findings for children in ICU settings. [23][24][25][26][27][28][29] In a 1-year period from January 1 through December 31, 1985, a total of 342 complete ABR assessments were carried by the Audiology Department of the Hermann Hospital in Houston, Texas.…”

Auditory Brain-Stem Response in Determination of Brain Death

“…Our clinical experience suggests that with a flexible, deliberate, and often imaginative approach to testing, measurement artifact rarely pre¬ cludes valid and reliable ABR record¬ ing. 16 Quality recordings are facili¬ tated by reliance on high-quality, well-grounded instrumentation, con¬ sistently low interelectrode imped¬ ance, and an occasional modification of test protocol, such as neural filter settings, the number of responses averaged, stimulus rate, and electrode array.1617·29 The other problem previ¬ ously cited was the apparently high proportion of patients yielding no response. This finding cannot be con¬ fidently used as evidence of brainstem dysfunction, as it may reflect, instead, serious peripheral otologie pathology.16 " Goldie et al,14 for exam¬ ple, found no response in 77% of 35 patients.…”

Decoding Speech and Music Stimuli from the Frequency Following Response

“…In human listeners the neural representation of speech and non-speech sounds is often investigated using auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) (Atcherson & Stoody, 2012; Hall III, 2007c). In clinical audiologic practice, the auditory brainstem response (ABR) (Jewett et al, 1970; Hood et al, 1991; Hall III, 2007e; Brueggeman & Atcherson, 2012; Davis et al, 1985) and the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) (Galambos et al, 1981; Stapells et al, 1984; Hall III, 2007b; Strickland & Needleman, 2012) are widely used within an audiologic battery to detect the presence and degree of hearing loss. While these measures are excellent at helping to identify the degree and configuration of hearing loss, they provide little information regarding sound identification.…”