Frequency Composition of Auditory Middle Responses

Abstract

Power spectral analysis and digital filtration were performed on the auditory middle responses (AMR) to click stimuli in six subjects with normal hearing. The spectral analysis revealed that the main power of the AMR was located at frequencies between 30 and 50 Hz with a peak at 40 Hz. A small elevation of power observed in the spectrum between 90 and 180 Hz was considered to be due to the ABR and the earliest part of the AMR. Typical AMR components, namely Na, Pa, Nb and Pb, were constantly recognised with digital high-pass (HP) filtration at 30 Hz. With increasing cut-off frequencies up to 50 Hz, the peak latencies of Na and Pa remained unchanged, while their magnitudes markedly decreased. On the other hand, Pb completely disappeared with 40 Hz filtration, forming two distinct positive peaks at about 55 and 80 ms after the stimulus onset. In some cases, three small positive peaks were seen following Pa with HP filtration at 50 Hz. With 60 Hz HP filtration, main components of the AMR substantially disappeared.