Dependence of auditory brainstem response on click polarity and high-frequency sensorineural hearing loss

An investigation is presented on the effect of click polarity upon the auditory brainstem response (ABR) in cases of simulated high-frequency hearing loss. A high-frequency hearing loss was stimulated in 12 normal subjects by applying a high-pass noise masker, the noise cutoff frequency being varied in half-octave steps through the range of audiometric frequencies. With this paradigm, the effects of click polarity on the ABR are similar to those reported in patients with high-frequency hearing loss, including changes in waveform morphology and substantial peak latency shifts. To evaluate the role of individual cochlear frequency channels in a more direct way, half-octave narrow-band responses were determined by pair-wise subtraction of the high-pass-noise-masked responses. As far as ABR peak latencies are concerned, stimulus polarity effects tend to increase towards the lower frequency bands. Thus, the selective elimination of the contribution to the ABR of cochlear high-frequency channels can be held responsible for the increased dependence of ABR on click polarity observed in high-frequency hearing loss. However, statistical evaluation of peak I, III and V latencies, both in high-pass-noise-masked and in narrow-band ABRs, reveals that the latency effects are not systematic between subjects. Mechanisms producing the observed rarefaction-condensation differences, possible explanations for the large intersubject variability and the consequences for clinical interpretation of ABR are discussed.