On the objective assessment of the auditory brainstem response measurement quality

Abstract

Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABRs) are commonly used in clinical practice to determine hearing impairments and hearing thresholds. Although many research groups work on automatic recognition of ABRs - in order to decrease the acquisition times - measures to determine the quality of ABR measurements objectively are still missing. In fact, recently released new standards for electroencephalographic measurements in auditory examinations require an objective measurement quality assessment for neurodiagnostic devices. Thus there is a pressing need for the development and evaluation of such a quality control. In this study, we propose (a) a novel technique for the assessment of the ABR measurement quality and (b) evaluate and compare this technique to two other approaches which have been suggested in literature as required by the new standards.