Acoustic brainstem responses for clinical use: the effect of attention

The acoustic brainstem response (ABR) is generally thought to be unaffected by variation in attention; however, recent papers suggest that during visual distraction of the subject wave Nv may be delayed. We have examined the ABRs of 22 normal subjects in states of auditory attention and visual distraction, using routine clinical testing procedures. We have shown that under these conditions altered attention states have no demonstrable effect on the latency of wave Nv.