Frequency specificity of simultaneously recorded early and middle latency auditory evoked potentials

Early and middle latency auditory evoked potentials were recorded simultaneously with a 2-channel wide-band recording technique. Latency and amplitude distributions of components V, Na and Pa were determined in 20 normal hearing adults for 3 different stimuli (click, plop, 500 Hz tone burst) presented at 70, 30 and 20 dB HL. Normative latency data of the middle latency components are presented. The detectability and amplitude of the Na-Pa complex were considerably larger than those of wave V at 20 and 30 dB HL for the two low frequency stimuli. Ten ears exhibiting high frequency sensorineural hearing loss were examined. In these cases, only click-evoked Na and Pa, but not wave V, were observed down to 20 dB HL. Also, the click latency-intensity function of Na-Pa was found to be similar to the normal low frequency latency functions. The results consistently suggested that the low frequency contributions to wave V cancel in phase because of short duration, whereas the duration of the Na-Pa complex allows for a positive superimposition of all frequency bands. Since these differences in frequency specificity of the EAEP and the MAEP affect latency, care is advised for the interpretation of inter-peak latencies.