RAPID AUDIOGRAM DETERMINATION USING EVOKED RESPONSES

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DESCRIPTION: (Adapted from the Applicant's Abstract) Although hearing evaluation using the Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) has become a routine test, current clinical procedures employing a click stimuli with ABR yield only a rough estimate of hearing. Frequency specific procedures are too lengthy to be applied to newborn and infant populations who are in most need of detailed hearing evaluation. To obtain an ABR audiogram (a four-frequency test of threshold) fast ABR acquisition systems that are equipped with automated generation of frequency specific stimuli and rapid detection of threshold responses should be devised. For maximum effectiveness, the device should provide clinicians with high quality recordings similar to those obtained in standard clinical practice using time-consuming procedures. This project proposes to develop processing methods which will significantly reduce ABR acquisition time and the effects of artifacts while yielding objective quantitative measures of response presence (signal to noise ratio estimates) and latency-intensity functions for the frequencies tested. These methods will result in the development of an automated EP system which will enable us to obtain a clinically usable ABR audiogram in a time frame suitable for use as a mass screening and testing device.