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A Method for Tracking the Time Evolution of Steady-State Evoked Potentials
Published on: May 25, 2019
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Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) auditory brainstem responses recorded using conventional and randomized
1U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program, Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific Code 71510, 53560 Hull Street, San Diego, California 92152, USA.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
|September 3, 2017
Summary
Randomized stimulation and averaging (RSA) effectively measures auditory brainstem responses (ABR) in dolphins at high rates. This method, with sufficient interstimulus interval jitter, avoids deconvolution and reduces stimulus artifact influence.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Marine Mammal Bioacoustics
- Signal Processing in Auditory Evoked Potentials
Background:
- Conventional auditory brainstem response (ABR) measurements are limited by low stimulus rates due to overlapping responses.
- High-rate ABR estimation methods often require complex deconvolution techniques and restrict stimulus sequences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of Randomized Stimulation and Averaging (RSA) for high-rate ABR measurements in dolphins.
- To determine optimal parameters for RSA in a marine mammal model.
- To compare RSA with conventional averaging techniques.
Main Methods:
- Auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) were recorded in three normal-hearing dolphins using both conventional averaging and RSA.
- RSA involved presenting stimuli with interstimulus intervals (ISIs) drawn from a random distribution.
- Stimulus polarity was alternated to mitigate stimulus artifacts.
Main Results:
- RSA proved effective for dolphin ABR assessment when interstimulus interval jitter was approximately 1.5 ms or greater.
- Alternating stimulus polarity significantly reduced the impact of stimulus artifacts in averaged ABRs compared to blanking or iterative methods.
- RSA offers flexibility and avoids deconvolution, simplifying high-rate ABR acquisition.
Conclusions:
- Randomized Stimulation and Averaging (RSA) is a viable and advantageous method for high-rate auditory brainstem response measurements in dolphins.
- Optimized stimulus jitter and alternating polarity are crucial for successful RSA implementation and artifact reduction in this species.
- RSA provides a more flexible and less computationally intensive alternative to traditional methods for auditory evoked potential research in marine mammals.
