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Updated: Apr 26, 2026
Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
Effect of stimulus and number of sweeps on the neonate auditory brainstem response
1Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
Objectives:
The purpose of this study was to compare auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) to chirp and click stimuli in neonates at a low level typically used in newborn hearing screening. It was hypothesized that ABR wave V amplitudes would be larger and would be obtained with fewer number of stimulus presentations with chirps.
Design:
Twenty-three neonates participated. ABRs were obtained to CE-Chirp and click stimuli presented at 30 dB nHL with sweeps increasing exponentially in number (i.e., 116, 232, 464, 928, and 1856).
Results:
ABRs to the CE-Chirps appeared before and with greater propensity at lower sweep numbers compared to clicks. All neonates had ABRs to CE-Chirps at 464 sweeps compared to 1856 sweeps with the click stimulus. ABRs to CE-Chirps evidenced significantly larger Wave V amplitudes and significantly longer wave V latencies versus clicks.
Conclusions:
Evoking ABRs in neonates to chirps could significantly improve response amplitudes and reduce test time.
