Fast and reliable ASSR measurement for hearing loss detection

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Hearing loss is the most common sensory disability in the world. It is also one of the most fast-growing and prevailing chronic disorders in Canada. Advanced testing for hearing sense in Canadian hospitals employs brainwaves (or EEG) to record Auditory Evoked Potentials (AEPs) under auditory stimulation which is considered the best approach to assess hearing ability in newborns and adults. One auditory response that can be analyzed using EEG for hearing assessment is the Auditory Steady-State Response (ASSR) signal measurement. In this research application, we propose a set of advanced signal processing techniques based on temporal and spatial filtering techniques that can improve the ASSR signal quality over spontaneous EEG and myogenic artifacts. These techniques were found effective in non-medical applications including Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), using steady-state visual evoked potentials and biometrics. However, to date, the superiority of these techniques over standard ASSR signal processing have not been evaluated in medical applications and especially in ASSR diagnosis. Our main objective is to investigate the feasibility of these signal processing methodologies to improve the reliability of hearing assessment and objective threshold estimation using ASSR within clinically viable time. Furthermore, in addition to hearing assessment, the feasibility and effectiveness of developed technologies can be explored in a number of recently emerging applications. That, is ASSR estimation in biometric human recognition and ASSR estimation in monitoring of mental health conditions such as concussion and dementia progression.The COVID-19 pandemic has put many parts of society into extreme isolation, including adults, older members of society and the very elderly. Hearing loss can often go undetected when people are not socially active or are isolated. This can have a negative impact on the availability of people to reintegrate into the post-pandemic workforce. Undetected hearing loss can limit performance at all levels of the workforce and can be simply remedied if detection is improved with great benefits to the Canadian society and economy.