The detection of adult cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) using an automated statistic and visual detection

The detection of adult cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEPs) can be challenging when the stimulus is just audible. The effectiveness of a statistic compared with expert examiners in (1) detecting the presence of CAEPs when stimuli were present, and (2) reporting the absence of CAEPs when no stimuli were present, was investigated. CAEPs recorded from ten adults, using two speech-based stimuli, five stimulus presentation levels, and non-stimulus conditions, were given to four experienced examiners who were asked to determine if responses to auditory stimulation could be observed, and their degree of certainty in making their decision. These recordings were also converted to multiple dependent variables and Hotelling's T2 was applied to calculate the probability that the mean value of any linear combination of these variables was significantly different from zero. Results showed that Hotelling's T2 was equally sensitive to the best of individual experienced examiners in differentiating a CAEP from random noise. It is reasonable to assume that the difference in response detection for a novice examiner and Hotelling's T2 would be even greater.