Complex evoked Auditory Brainstem Response

An extremely helpful method for evaluating brainstem neuronal function is the auditory brainstem response (ABR). Clicks or bursts of tone can evoke it. However, subsequent studies have demonstrated that complex stimuli, including spoken stimuli, music, and complex tones, can also elicit a response. (e.g., /da/, /ba/, and /ga/) (1). Among other aspects of the acoustic structure of speech, the complex-evoked ABR provides unique neural representations of speech sound offset, phase-locking to the fundamental and formant frequencies, and speech sound onset (2). An indicator of subcortical speech processing is the speech evoked auditory brainstem response (S-ABR). A voice stimulus is especially beneficial since it can illustrate how the brainstem maintains temporal and spectral information (1). Compared to normal controls, the introduction of complex stimuli increases sensitivity to minute variations in impaired populations more than clicks or tone bursts do (3). S-ABR is helpful for assessment, recording treatment results, and tracking improvements because of its high reliability and consistency across time (4).