Auditory steady-state responses to tones amplitude-modulated at 80–110 Hz

Steady-state responses can be recorded from the human scalp in response to tones that are sinusoidally modulated in amplitude at rates between 60 and 120 Hz. For 60 dB SPL 1000-Hz tones the maximum baseline-to-peak amplitude of about 0.06 microV occurs for modulation rates between 80 and 95 Hz. The phase of the response does not change with modulation depths greater than 25% and the amplitude saturates at modulation depths greater than 50%. The presence or absence of a response can be accurately determined by frequency-domain statistics and the response becomes clearly recognizable at intensities that are 16 +/- 8 dB above behavioral thresholds. With increasing intensity the response increases in amplitude at 1.9 nV/dB until an intensity of 70 dB SPL. As the intensity increases above 70 dB SPL the response increases in amplitude more rapidly at 7.8 nV/dB (at 1000 Hz) and contains significant energy at harmonics of the modulation frequency. This second stage of the intensity function is more prominent for stimuli with lower carrier frequencies (500 more than 1000 more than 2000 Hz) and is attenuated by high-pass masking. These steady-state responses should be helpful in evaluating human auditory physiology and in objective audiometry.