The Relationship Between Acceptable Noise Level and Electrophysiologic Auditory Brainstem and Cortical Signal to Noise Ratios

The following objectives of the study were formulated: i) to investigate differences in measured signal to noise ratios while recording speech-evoked auditory brainstem response (cABR) and cortical late latency response (LLR) in low and high acceptable noise level (ANL) groups; and ii) to compare peak to peak amplitude of cABR (V-A) and LLR (N1-P2) in low and high ANL groups. A total of 23 normal hearing participants was included in the study. One shot replicative and partly exploratory research design was utilized to study the effect of signal to noise ratio in a recorded waveform on afferent mechanism, assessed by cABR and LLR on participants having values of ANL of ≤7 (low ANL group) and ≥13 (high ANL group). There were no differences in signal to noise ratio in the recorded waveforms of cABR and LLR between low and high ANL groups at both brainstem and cortical levels. However, the peak to peak amplitude of V-A of cABR and N1-P2 of LLR were both statistically larger in the high ANL group compared to their counterpart. The signal to noise ratio in recorded waveforms did not differentiated cABR (V-A) or LLR (N1-P2) in low and high ANL groups. However, Larger peak to peak amplitudes in the high ANL group suggests differences higher processing centers in the upper brainstem to the auditory cortex. The findings of the study may be useful in determining the patient acceptability of noise.