N₁ Latencies of the Slow Auditory Evoked Potential

Abstract

Several studies have been published concerning the relation between stimulus level and amplitude of the slow auditory evoked response. Little attention has, however, been given to the relation between level and latency of the N₁ component (100-200 ms). A mathematical model of such a relation is proposed based on the assumption of an exponential relationship. The model has been tested on normally hearing subjects as well as on patients with sensorineural lesions, cochlear as well as retrocochlear. The results indicate that the proposed method of evaluating the slow evoked responses offers a way of threshold extrapolation with rather good accuracy. It also appears to be useful in determining the type of hearing loss

Key Words:

• Electric response audiometry (ERA)
• N₁ latency
• Threshold extrapolation
• Loudness function