Evaluating peripheral neural processing through spectral analysis of auditory brainstem responses

There has been renewed interest in using auditory brainstem responses (ABR) to examine peripheral auditory processing. Spectral-domain ABR analysis offers ease of objective quantification of neural responses and may highlight different information than time-domain peaks. Here, we compare time-domain and spectral-domain ABR features and characterize the effect of aging on the ABR spectrum. Both the amplitude spectral peaks and spectral phase-based group delays were strongly associated with time-domain ABR wave amplitude and latency, respectively, and showed significant effects of age irrespective of hearing sensitivity. These findings are encouraging, warranting further research.