The effectiveness of the auditory steady state response in diagnosing hearing loss in infants

This paper aims to provide a review of the emerging Auditory Steady State Response in light of existing proce-dures for diagnosis of hearing loss in infants. Determining the type, degree, and configuration of hearing loss ininfants is a challenge requiring sophisticated electrophysiological equipment of which Auditory Evoked Responses,and more specifically the Auditory Brainstem Response, are currently the most reliable and widely used. Thesetechniques, however, present with definite limitations. An emerging technique, the Auditory Steady State Re-sponse, promises to address many of the existing limitations of Auditory Evoked Response techniques. TheAuditory Steady State Response exhibits the potential to estimate reasonably accurate frequency specific hear-ing thresholds across low and high frequencies in a time-efficient manner. Accurate diagnosis of the magnitudeand configuration of hearing loss is the first and primary step toward effective and accountable interventionservices to hearing impaired infants. The Auditory Steady State Response technique, however, requires furtherclinical validation and should be used in combination with the Auditory Brainstem Response. This will ensure thatresults are cross-checked and that more accurate and reliable diagnosis of hearing loss is made