[Basis and clinical application of the "contingent negative variation" in "evoked response audiometry" (author's...

After repeated stimulation with an indicative stimulus and a second imperative stimulus, a slow negative potential shife, the "Contingent Negative Variation" (CNV), can be recorded in the EEG before the second stimulus. On account of the main features of CNV two qualitative tests can be used in audiometry. "Tone-CNV" is an objective test of perception of a pure-tone. The indicative pure-tone is followed regularly by a second imperative stimulus, a flash of light or a slide. The appearance of CNV is the positive sign of perception, even if the "acoustically evoked potential" (AEP) is difficult to define. Adults and children (5 to 12 years) with normal hearing or suffering from several forms of hearing loss developed a CNV, except those patients with severe brain damage. The advantage of this method is the short testing time and accentuation of AEPs. The test can be also done under sedation. In "Objective Speech Audiometry", a proof of concept discrimination, only words of one concept are combined with a second imperative stimulus. The other group of words of the second concept remains "unreinforced". After correct discrimination all normal subjects developed a CNV before the second stimulus and after the "unreinforced" concept a "Discriminative Positive Variation" (DPV). Thus, this method can be used for clinical purposes. Loss of discrimination, perseveration phenomena and hemispheric differences were observed in aphasic patients.