Human auditory steady-state responses to amplitude-modulated tones: phase and latency measurements

Human auditory steady-state responses were recorded to four stimuli, with carrier frequencies (f(c)) of 750, 1500, 3000 and 6000 Hz, presented simultaneously at 60 dB SPL. Each carrier frequency was modulated by a specific modulation frequency (f(m)) of 80.6, 85.5, 90.3 or 95.2 Hz. By using four different recording conditions we obtained responses for all permutations of f(m) and f(c). The phase delays (P) of the responses were unwrapped and converted to latency (L) using the equation: L=P/(360xf(m)). The number of cycles of the stimulus that occurred prior to the recorded response was estimated by analyzing the effect of modulation frequency on the responses. These calculations provided latencies of 20.7, 17.7, 16.1 and 16.1 ms for carrier frequencies 750, 1500, 3000 and 6000 Hz. This latency difference of about 4.5 ms between low and high carrier frequencies remained constant over many different manipulations of the stimuli: faster modulation rates (150-190 Hz), binaural rather than monaural presentation, different intensities, stimuli presented alone or in conjunction with other stimuli, and modulation frequencies that were separated by as little as 0.24 Hz. This frequency-related delay is greater than that measured using transient evoked potentials, most likely because of differences in how transient and steady-state responses are generated and how their latencies are determined.