title: Steady-state analysis of auditory evoked potentials over a wide range of stimulus repetition rates in awake vs. natural sleep.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Auditory steady-state responses (ASSR) evoked by recurrent tones were assessed over a wide range of stimulus repetition rates embracing well the traditionally measured transient AEPs. Repetition rates of ≤ 10 Hz have received little attention in the context of the ASSR stimulus-response analysis approach which is speculated to provide technical advantages, if not additional/supplemental information, over more traditional transient stimulus-response paradigms.
  
  
  METHODS
  Magnitudes were measured at repetition rates from 0.75 to 80 Hz, using trains of recurrent tone-burst stimuli.
  
  
  METHODS
  Twenty-five normal-hearing adults during sleep and awake.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Results show that response magnitudes for adults tested during sleep were significantly larger than those for adults while awake at repetition rates <5 Hz. Magnitudes were largest at the two lowest repetition rates, as expected from corresponding results obtained using conventional methods.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The analysis methods used in this paper may give information that will have applications for clinical testing. Results confirm and extend knowledge of the effects of repetition rate on AEPs over a range embracing the gamut of responses as traditionally classified, specifically at the beginning stages of natural sleep.
authors.affiliation: Veterans Administration Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Abreena I
authors.initials: AI
authors.lastname: Tlumak
authors.forename: John D
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Durrant
authors.forename: Rafael E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Delgado
authors.forename: J Robert
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Boston
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult