Monaural and binaural auditory brainstem responses in relation to the psychophysical loudness growth function.

Abstract

Electrophysiological measures of the brainstem response to auditory stimuli permit comparisons to be made between latency shifts across intensity increments and psychophysical measures of loudness growth. Monaural comparisons leave much room for uncertainty in the interpretation of the nature of the relationship between the two response modes. A more definitive method for examining this relationship is to compare the monaural and binaural data obtained from psychophysical and electrophysiological measures. It is shown here that, while the brainstem electrophysiological response to intensity changes can be described by a power function, the latency of the neural response does not provide a direct link to the process of loudness summation or to the psychophysical response to loudness growth.