Measurement of brainstem speech-evoked potentials (BSEPs) and thier application in hearing assessment and speech processing technology

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When sound reaches the ear, tiny electrical pulses propagate through the different auditory centres in the brain, resulting in the sensation of hearing. Although much about this process remains a mystery, by taping electrodes to the scalp we can non-invasively record the electrical activity in these auditory centres. This signal, called the Auditory-Evoked Potential, allows clinicians to diagnose hearing problems and localize their origin in the brain. The sound that clinicians most commonly use for this test is a brief loud click, which has the benefit of being a simple stimulus with a well-defined evoked potential. However, a click does not provide sufficient information to allow assessing the ability to hear speech. As a result, there is increasing interest in developing tests that record the brain's electrical response to speech, or the Speech-Evoked Potential. For example, we have recently shown that the Speech-Evoked Potential closely follows the fine variations in the pitch of a vowel. In fact, this brain signal is so similar to the speech waveform, if it is converted to a sound and played back, it is perceived as intelligible speech. This means that it allows us to "listen in" on the internal representation of speech within the brain.