The Manipulation of Auditory Brain Stem Response Data to Predict the Behavioral Audiogram during Infancy

ABSTRACT

The auditory brain stem response (ABR) is the current gold standard to estimate hearing thresholds during infancy. The clinical protocols to illicit the ABR are documented, and the correlation between the ABR and auditory sensitivity has been validated extensively. Research also has focused on the maturation of the auditory system and its effects on the ABR threshold. In situ ABR measures were conducted to quantify the maturation of the ABR during infancy for the purposes of controlling for this effect when using ABR thresholds to estimate hearing levels on an audiogram. This article describes a corrective procedure that permits the clinician to obtain the estimated hearing level from ABR thresholds during infancy when immature responses are prevalent.

KEYWORDS

Auditory evoked potentials - auditory brain stem response - hearing loss - pediatric audiology - infants - children

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