Stimulus Repetition Rate and the Early Brainstem Responses

Abstract

The effects of stimulus presentation rate on the various components of the cochlear and early brainstem response were investigated. In one experiment, examining stimulus rates 2 to 20 per second, a significant reduction in peak-to-peak amplitude with increasing rate was found only for the NP, response. In the second experiment, increasing the rate from 12 to 50 per second resulted in a significant decrease in all peak-to-peak amplitudes measured. Increasing the stimulus rate resulted in a significantly increased latency of alt waves except N₅. The amount of latency change increased with successive waves.