Frequency-following response (FFR) with speech stimulus in normal-hearing young adults.

Purpose: Analyze the slope, latency and amplitude values of the waveforms V, A, C, D, E, F and O from Frequency-following Response (FFR) with speech stimulus in normal-hearing adults based on a recent international reference study.

Method: Eleven normal-hearing adults aged 18-30 years, without hearing complaints, were evaluated in this study using an Intelligent Hearing Systems device. The speech stimulus /da/ was presented to the right ear via insertion phone and the responses were captured by electrodes placed on the vertex, right mastoid bone, and forehead (ground).

Results: The descriptive latency values of the components were V 6.50, A 7.87, C 17.74, D 22.77, E 32.07, F 40.03 and O 48.07 ms. The mean amplitude measures of the waves were V 0.17, A -0.12, C -0.14, D -0.14, E -0.20, F -0.22 and O -0.14 µV. The mean slope value was 0.23. Comparison with an international study, Krizman et al. (2012), showed that most of the results are within positive and negative standard deviation values for the assessed age group for slope, latency and amplitude.

Conclusion: The electrophysiological measures obtained from Frequency-following Response using the speech stimulus / da/ in normal-hearing adults without hearing complaints showed slope, latency and amplitude values of all FFR components within the normality standard described in the international literature.