BACKGROUND A proper sleep system can affect the spine support in neutral position. Most of the previous studies in scientific literature have focused on the effects of customary mattresses on the spinal alignment. To keep the spine in optimal alignment, one can use sleep surfaces with different zonal elasticity, the so called custom-made arrangements. The required stiffness of a sleep surface f...

The auditory brainstem response (ABR), a measure of neural synchrony, was used to estimate auditory sensitivity in the eastern screech owl (Megascops asio). The typical screech owl ABR waveform showed two to three prominent peaks occurring within 5 ms of stimulus onset. As sound pressure levels increased, the ABR peak amplitude increased and latency decreased. With an increasing stimulus presen...

Numerous fish species produce broad-band pulsed sounds with a distinct temporal patterning which is thought to be important during intraspecific communication. In order to determine whether fishes are able to utilize temporal characteristics of acoustic signals, time resolution was determined in four species of otophysines and anabantoids by analyzing auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) to doub...

OBJECTIVES To determine the sensitivity of auditory brainstem response (ABR) testing for detecting acoustic neuromas and to determine whether the test is less sensitive for detecting small tumors. DESIGN Retrospective review of the medical charts of 58 patients with acoustic neuroma who had all of the data necessary for inclusion in the study. SETTING University-affiliated referral practice...

Early auditory temporal processing abilities are important for language acquisition and for later reading abilities. In the present study, auditory brainstem responses (ABRs) were recorded in a forward-masking paradigm in healthy, full-term infants aged 6 weeks (n = 111) and 9 months (n = 62). Our purpose was to establish normative values of forward-masking ABRs and investigate the development ...

The design of acoustic signals and hearing sensitivity in socially communicating species would normally be expected to closely match in order to minimize signal degradation and attenuation during signal propagation. Nevertheless, other factors such as sensory biases as well as morphological and physiological constraints may affect strict correspondence between signal features and hearing sensit...

OBJECTIVE To investigate whether the saccule exhibits temporary or permanent functional loss resembling threshold shifts in auditory brainstem response (ABR) of guinea pigs following noise exposure. DESIGN Randomly bred guinea pigs were divided into 3 groups: A (short-term noise exposure, 30 minutes, n = 15), B (long-term noise exposure, 40 hours, n = 9), and C (no noise exposure, n = 5). S...

Auditory sensitivity in three species of woodpeckers was estimated using the auditory brainstem response (ABR), a measure of the summed electrical activity of auditory neurons. For all species, the ABR waveform showed at least two, and sometimes three prominent peaks occurring within 10 ms of stimulus onset. Also ABR peak amplitude increased and latency decreased as a function of increasing sou...

The slow wave (SW) component of the auditory brainstem response (ABR) was recorded in eight young adult subjects of both genders who had normal hearing sensitivity and who exhibited normal behavioral temporal integration (TI) functions. Test stimuli were 500- and 2000-Hz tone bursts, with rise and decay ramps of two periods, ranging in total duration from 2.5 msec to 44 msec. The responses appe...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate electrophysiologically the auditory nerve and the auditory brainstem function of patients with tinnitus and normal-hearing thresholds using the auditory brainstem response (ABR). DESIGN Case-control study. SETTING Ambulatory section of the Department of Otolaryngology, Hospital de Base de Brasília. PATIENTS Thirty-seven individuals with tinnitus and 38 without tinnit...