Auditory brain stem responses to high-frequency tone bursts in normal-hearing subjects

ABR and behavioral thresholds and ABR latencies were measured from six normal-hearing subjects in response to tone bursts, having frequencies of 9,000 to 16,000 Hz. In general, ABR thresholds were higher than behavioral thresholds; however, the differences were typically less than those observed for lower frequencies. Wave V latency-intensity functions were less dependent on frequency for these stimuli than they were for lower frequency stimuli. This may be due to the fact that higher frequencies are represented over a very narrow area of the cochlea and that minor variability in the measurement of latencies might obscure small differences in latency as a function of frequency. In general, these data suggest that ABRs can be measured in response to high-frequency stimuli and that these measurements may have clinical utility, especially when monitoring ototoxic effects in difficult-to-test patients.