The purpose of this study was to investigate the reliable selection of stimulus parameters in auditory steady-state responses (ASSR) against electrical artifacts under clinical settings of air, bone and field stimulations. Data with these different transducers were obtained
from the mannequin showing the same electrical impedances as in the clinical recording sessions. The amplitude modulation was fixed as 100% with the varied modulating frequency from 20 to 200 Hz and with the varied frequency modulation from 0 to 15%.
The results showed what points should be reviewed carefully in clinical recording sessions of ASSR data. First, the insert phone stimulation led to the highest reliable range of ASSR stimulus parameters while the bone conduction stimulation exhibited the least reliable ranges of stimulation parameters. Second, in this study, even insert phone stimulation led to some artifacts at the limited frequencies of 1, 2 kHz with modulating frequency of 120 Hz. Thus, it would be necessary to pay special attention to reduce electrical noises or to avoid these ranges to improve reliability. Third, the bone stimulation resulted in significant artifacts in the overall ranges of stimulation parameters, so data from bone conduction ASSR suffered from the highest level of influences from electrical artifacts and led to the least reliable interpretation. Fourth, the field stimulation exhibited some false positive responses at 4, 8 kHz with the modulating frequencies of 120 and 160 Hz. Therefore, these ranges should be carefully considered with possible contamination from electrical sources. Finally, the data showed the clinically important ranges against genuine electrical noises while the previous studies
contained responses with mixed noise sources such as electrical, vestibular, and other physiological origins. In conclusion, the clinically safe and reliable ranges of stimulus parameters were estimated for all three stimulation modes. These data will be essential in
interpreting correct ASSR results and in designing more robust data aquisition strategies against various types of artifacts.
KEY WORDS:Auditory steady-state response (ASSR)·False positive·Electrical noises.