A non-invasive electrophysiological technique for the measurement of 'tuning'

The frequency selectivity of the auditory system is mainly determined by the activity of the cochlea. A method of measuring this selectivity has been developed by recording the extratympanic compound auditory nerve action potential using non-simultaneous masking. This provides a non-invasive 4-point tuning curve centered at 4 kHz which demonstrates the typical features expected from animal experiments. The non-interactive nature of the test makes it easy to perform and normative data has been collected on 10 subjects.