Abstract
Short latency (10 ms post-stimulus-time) auditory evoked potentials are a useful tool for assessing the hearing integrity at different frequency bands, especially if frequency-specific stimuli, like tone bursts, are used. However, a proper interpretation of the evoked potentials should rely upon the understanding of the single auditory nerve units activity patterns and their relations with the gross potentials, under the same stimulating conditions. In this paper, the basic properties of the burst evoked PST histograms of single units are explained with the aid of a model for the cochlear events. The relationships between single units activity and the gross potentials are then analysed on this ground, in particular for what concerns the Action Potential input-output latency curve, the off-response rising at the burst offset and the growth of N2.