Recording of electrically evoked auditory brainstem responses (E-ABR) with an integrated stimulus generator in Matlab.
Electrical auditory brainstem responses (E-ABRs) of subjects with cochlear implants are used for monitoring the physiologic responses of early signal processing of the auditory system. Additionally, E-ABR measurements allow the diagnosis of retro-cochlear diseases. Therefore, E-ABR should be available in every cochlear implant center as a diagnostic tool. In this paper, we introduce a low-cost setup designed to perform an E-ABR as well as a conventional ABR for research purposes. The distributable form was developed with Matlab and the Matlab Compiler (The Mathworks Inc.). For the ABR, only a PC with a soundcard, conventional system headphones, and an EEG pre-amplifier are necessary; for E-ABR, in addition, an interface to the cochlea implant is required. For our purposes, we implemented an interface for the Combi 40+/Pulsar implant (MED-EL, Innsbruck).
Bahmer
Andreas
A
University of Frankfurt Main, Clinic for Otolaryngology, Audiological Acoustics, 60590 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. andreas.bahmer@kgu.de
Peter
Otto
O
Baumann
Uwe
U
D001300:Audiometry, Evoked Response / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D001306:Auditory Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology; D003054:Cochlear Implants / Q000592:standards*; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D004582:Electronics, Medical / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D016057:Evoked Potentials, Auditory, Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology*; D006313:Hearing Loss, Central / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D008488:Medical Illustration; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation; D012984:Software; D014584:User-Computer Interface