David C. Shepherd

An averaged electroencephalic auditory diagnostic (AEA-D) procedure.

Since the introduction of the averaging computer into the area of electroencephalic audiometry considerable interest has been directed toward the development of a clinical tool to measure sensitivity of the peripheral auditory mechanism. Judgments of cochlear sensitivity that are made utilizing the technique of Averaged Electroencephalic Audiometry (AEA) however, are actually based upon electroencephalic responses to sound that are mediated by and evoked from either specific or non-specific components of the central nervous system. Therefore, it is logical to speculate that disorders within the central nervous system (depending upon locus) could produce patterns of neural activity that are so distorted that electroencephalic responses evoked by auditory stimuli (and transmitted from an intact cochlea) would either be masked completely, as shown at the top of Figure 1, or averaged into a waveform that is markedly altered in configuration, as depicted in the center of Figure 1.