Effect of broadband noise on the human brain stem auditory evoked response

The purpose of this paper is to describe the effect of broadband continuous noise on brain stem auditory evoked responses elicited from normal-hearing and hearing-impaired individuals. The motivation for this study derives from the increasing use of noise masking paradigms in diagnostic electrophysiology, the universal presence of background noise in everyday listening environments, and the frequent observation that background noise is more detrimental to the performance of the hearing-impaired individual than to the normal-hearing individual. Four studies were designed to evaluate: (1) the sensitivity and specificity of the latency-intensity series, (2) the sensitivity and specificity of the latency-noise series, (3) the dependence of the latency-noise series on signal-to-noise ratio near electrophysiologic threshold, and (4) the dependence of the latency-noise index on the signal level at which the test is performed. The results of the studies reported herein show that the electrophysiological response to increasing masker levels is more sensitive for identifying inner ear pathology than previously used latency-intensity series measures, without compromising specificity. It is suggested that simultaneous broadband masking should be considered as a test for localization of pathology in those subjects for whom routine behavioral measurements are not possible or when the results of such measurements are equivocal.