Frequency Specificity of the Auditory Brainstem Responses in the Cat

The auditory brainstem responses evoked by click, noise-burst and tone-bursts have been recorded in the cat, and octave-wide derived bands obtained at 20 and 50 dB RL intensity levels. At near-threshold intensity both the 2 and 4 kHz tone-bursts are frequency specific, while the click and noise-burst ABR contain no contributions below 2 kHz. The principal contribution to the 1 kHz ABR comes from the 2-4 kHz band, while at 0.5 kHz almost the entire response is generated basally. Higher stimulus intensity produces a spread of activity into other bands. Low frequency cochlear function cannot be assessed by this technique.