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Frequency-specific auditory brainstem responses:
Effective masking levels and relationships to behavioural thresholds in normal
hearing adults.
Abstract
Ipsilateral masking levels and normal thresholds for tone piip auditory
brainstem responses (ABRs) were investigated in normal subjects for the purpose
of establishing recording parameters and norms for frequency-specific tone pip
ABR testing. White noise was found to effectively mask ABRs to tone pips at mean
signal to noise ratios of between -1 and -5.5 dB [dB peak-equivalent (pe) SPL/dB
SPL] depending on the tone pip frequency.
ABR thresholds were established for tone pips in the rpesence of ipsilateral
masking with high pass filtered noise for 500 Hz tone pips and notched noise for
tone pips from 1000 to 4000 Hz, at a nominal signal to noise ratio of -5 dB (ie
with the noise SPL measured prior to filtering).
Thresholds occurred between 28.6 and 36.6 dB pe SPL, equivalent to 4.4 to 8.8
dB nHL. ABR thresholds for masked and unmasked tone pips did not differ
significantly.
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