Schedule of Events | Search Abstracts | Invited Symposia | Symposia | Rising Stars | Poster Sessions | Data Blitz

Predicting Pure Tone Audiometry using Auditory Brainstem Responses to Continuous Speech

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 7, 3:00 – 5:00 pm, Fairview/Kitsilano Ballrooms

Neejata Shrestha¹ (neejata.shrestha@gmail.com), Brett M. Bormann^1,2, Daniel C. Comstock¹, Kelsey Mankel^1,3,4, Soukhin Das^1,5, Hilary Brodie⁶, Doron Sagiv⁶, Lee M. Miller^1,6,7; ¹Center for Mind and Brain, University of California, Davis, ²Neuroscience Graduate Group, University of California, Davis, ³Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, ⁴School of Communication Sciences & Disorders, University of Memphis, ⁵Psychology Graduate Group, University of California, Davis, ⁶Departments of Otolaryngology | Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, Davis, ⁷Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, University of California, Davis

Pure tone averages (PTA) are well established and informative measures for diagnosing major forms of hearing loss. However, the relation of PTA to real-world auditory processing, especially in complex environments, is not well established. This study aims to validate this universally standard audiological measure against an ecologically relevant, brain-based hearing loss diagnostic. Specifically, we aim to estimate the PTA of a large cohort of military Veteran participants -- a population with abundant and varied hearing loss -- using only their neural activity, derived from electroencephalography (EEG). To accomplish this, 109 Veterans participated in a novel spatial attention continuous speech task where they would attend to a narrative with no background noise or attend to a narrative with a spatially separate distractor story. Both narratives utilize our specially engineered chirped speech (Cheech) stimulus designed to elicit auditory brainstem responses (ABR). ABR was recorded from both target and distractor narratives. We used multiple regression models to predict PTA values using event-related potential (ERP) morphology of ABR components elicited by the Cheech stimulus. PTA values were negatively correlated with Wave V peak amplitudes across different task conditions, demonstrating that increased hearing ability (low PTA values) is directly related to greater neural activity to speech (higher Wave V amplitude) in the auditory brainstem. This relationship demonstrates the potential of neural measures from an ecologically relevant listening task to predict PTA values, providing an additional tool for clinicians to characterize real-world hearing function.

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition