Auditory steady state response in sound field

Objective: Physiological and behavioral responses were compared in normal-hearing subjects via analyses of the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) and conventional audiometry under sound field conditions. Design: The auditory stimuli, presented through a loudspeaker, consisted of four carrier tones (500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz), presented singly for behavioral testing but combined (multiple frequency technique), to estimate thresholds using the ASSR. Study sample: Twenty normal-hearing adults were examined. Results: The average differences between the physiological and behavioral thresholds were between 17 and 22 dB HL. The Spearman rank correlation between ASSR and behavioral thresholds was significant for all frequencies (p < 0.05). Significant differences were found in the ASSR amplitude among frequencies, and strong correlations between the ASSR amplitude and the stimulus level (p < 0.05). Conclusions: The ASSR in sound field testing was found to yield hearing threshold estimates deemed to be reasonably well correlated with behaviorally assessed thresholds.