Effect of High-Pass Filtering on the Neonatal Auditory Brainstem Response to Air- and Bone-Conducted Clicks

Abstract

The effect of standard high-pass analog filtering on the neonatal auditory brainstem response (ABR) to air- and bone-conducted clicks at low intensity screening levels was investigated. Simultaneous three channel recorded ABRs were obtained from 20 neonates with filter settings of 30–3000, 100–3000, and 150–3000 Hz at intensity levels of 20, 30, and 40 dB nHL. Statistically significant reductions in wave V amplitude and decreases in wave V latency were observed for both transducers across all three low level stimulus intensities with the progressive increase in the high-pass filter cutoff ( p < .05). These data support the advocacy of less restrictive high-pass filtering (e.g., 30 Hz) for neonatal and infant ABR screening to air- and bone-conducted clicks.