Spectral and synchrony differences in auditory brainstem responses evoked by chirps of varying durations

Abstract

The chirp-evoked ABR has been termed a more synchronous response, referring to the fact that rising-frequency chirp stimuli theoretically compensate for temporal dispersions down the basilar membrane. This compensation is made possible by delaying the higher frequency content of the stimulus until the lower frequency traveling waves are closer to the cochlea apex. However, it is not yet clear how sensitive this temporal compensation is to variation in the delay interval. This study analyzed chirp- and click-evoked ABRs at low intensity, using a variety of tools in the time, frequency, and phase domains, to measure synchrony in the response. Additionally, this study also examined the relationship between chirp sweep rate and response synchrony by varying the delay between high- and low-frequency portions of chirp stimuli. The results suggest that the chirp-evoked ABRs in this study exhibited more synchrony than the click-evoked ABRs and that slight gender-based differences exist in the synchrony of chirp-evoked ABRs. The study concludes that a tailoring of chirp parameters to gender may be beneficial in pathologies that severely affect neural synchrony, but that such a customization may not be necessary in routine clinical applications.