The Relationship between Brainstem Response and Electroencephalic Response in Pedioaudiometry

Abstract

Twenty three children between 4 months and 5 years of age suspected of hearing impairment were tested by brainstem response (BSR) and electroencephalic response audiometry (ERA). We used the chicks as auditory stimuli in BSR and used the tone bursts from 250Hz to 4000Hz in ERA. The response was recognized in 16 cases by ERA and in 11 cases by BSR.
The lowest response threshold was at 0dB HL in BSR and at around 60dB in ERA. Nevertheless more frequent response were obtained in ERA than in BSR. The reason of this was thought that the residual hearing at low frequencies would not be recognized by BSR but by ERA. Tone bursts of 250Hz and 500Hz which were used in ERA were useful for testing the residual hearing.
The clicks used for BSR were also utilized as auditory stimuli in ERA, and the lower response threshold were obtained as same as in BSR. But the response by chicks in ERA did not show hearing sensitivity at low frequencies.