Rapid acquisition of auditory brainstem responses with multiple frequency and intensity tone-bursts

Auditory brainstem response (ABR) thresholds, latency and amplitude functions were obtained in mice using stimuli presented singly and as a multiple stimulus sequence. All stimuli were tone-bursts at frequencies from 4 to 32 kHz. The multiple stimulus consisted of a sequence of 20 tone-bursts of four different frequencies at five intensities separated by 12 ms. A comparison of responses to stimuli presented singly and those obtained with the 20-stimulus train showed no significant difference in thresholds. Also, no differences were found in response latencies or amplitudes, indicating that the responses from multiple stimuli were not adapted or otherwise affected. The use of this 20-stimulus train can result in a significant time savings for data acquisition compared with single stimuli. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of the rapid acquisition of unadapted cochlear and brainstem responses at different frequencies using a sequence of tone-bursts at different frequencies and intensities.