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Updated: Jul 15, 2026
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Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
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The relationship between auditory steady-state response and behavioural audiometry in hearing estimation for infants:
Xin Huang1, Karolina Kluk1, Emanuele Perugia2
1Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness (ManCAD), School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Systematic Reviews
|December 3, 2025
Summary
Auditory Steady-State Response (ASSR) accurately predicts behavioral audiometry (BA) hearing thresholds in infants. Further research is needed due to study heterogeneity, but ASSR is a reliable tool for early hearing loss identification.
Area of Science:
- Audiology
- Pediatric Medicine
- Hearing Science
Background:
- Auditory Steady-State Response (ASSR) is crucial for identifying hearing loss in infants, enabling early intervention.
- Assessing the accuracy of ASSR in determining infant hearing thresholds is vital for effective clinical practice.
- This systematic review evaluates the differences between ASSR and behavioral audiometry (BA) thresholds in infants.
Purpose of the Study:
- To systematically review and quantify the threshold differences between air-conducted ASSR and BA in infants.
- To assess the accuracy of ASSR as a predictor of hearing thresholds in the pediatric population.
Main Methods:
- A systematic literature search was conducted across PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Embase.
- Infants under 2 years were included, comparing ASSR thresholds to BA thresholds.
- Risk of bias was assessed, and mean threshold differences with 95% confidence intervals were calculated at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz.
Main Results:
- Seven studies with 2845 thresholds were included in the meta-analysis, indicating moderate quality and high heterogeneity.
- Mean differences between ASSR and BA thresholds ranged from 6.35 dB to 9.24 dB across tested frequencies.
- The results showed ASSR provides a reasonably accurate prediction of BA hearing thresholds in infants.
Conclusions:
- ASSR demonstrates reasonable accuracy in predicting behavioral audiometry thresholds in infants.
- The significant heterogeneity across studies highlights the need for further research.
- Larger infant cohort studies are recommended to refine the accuracy of ASSR for hearing threshold determination.
Keywords:
Auditory Steady-State ResponseBehavioural AudiometryMeta-AnalysisNewborn Hearing ScreeningThreshold DifferenceMore Related Videos
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