In Brief:
Both the toneburst auditory brainstem response (ABR) and the auditory steady-state response (ASSR) can be used for the objective prediction of pure-tone, behavioral thresholds. In this study, ASSR and ABR thresholds were recorded in a group of 14 adults with normal hearing, 10 adults with flat, sensorineural hearing losses, and 10 adults with steeply sloping, sensorineural hearing losses. Two ABR stimulation protocols were used: Blackman-gated tonebursts and linear-gated tonebursts plus notched-noise masking. Two ASSR stimulation protocols also were used: amplitude modulation and amplitude plus frequency modulation. The results indicated no difference in the accuracy with which either ASSR or ABR protocol predicted behavioral threshold. However, on average, ABR thresholds were 3 dB closer to behavioral thresholds than ASSR thresholds. These results suggest that either the ABR or ASSR could be used to predict behavioral thresholds; however, trends observed within the different subject groups suggest differences in the predictive accuracy of the ABR and ASSR may exist for certain individuals.
