運用臨床電生理儀器以語音／da／誘發正常聽力成人之聽性腦幹反應

Auditory Brainstem Response Induced by the Speech Syllable /da/ in Healthy Adults with the Application of a Clinical Auditory Evoked Potential Instrument

本研究目的是運用子—母音單音節語音/da/誘發聽性腦幹反應（speech-evoked auditory brainstem response, sABR），並以臨床聽覺電生理檢查儀器的刺激、記錄和分析方式，探討語音誘發聽性腦幹反應於華語正常聽力成人波形之數據並分析性別變項效應。總計收20位雙耳聽力正常成人參與本研究（男性10位，女性10位），平均年齡29.00歲（SD = 5.15，範圍20～37歲），在語音/da/80 dB SPL刺激音強，每秒4.3次的刺激速率與Fz-Earlobe-Fpz記錄電極位置的設定下，可如同國外文獻在相對應時間區段內觀察到一致具再現性的神經反應波形，此外初步研究結果也指出不論是各波潛時、振幅以及對語音基頻F0的周期性神經反應，不因性別而有顯著差異（p ＞ .05），表示從腦幹至聽覺皮質下區域未顯現性別效應。由於電生理檢查結果易受到儀器設定參數、受測者個人因素等影響，因此在實務應用前仍建議因地制宜建構合適的常模參考數據，本研究結果提供國內耳科學、聽力語言、特殊教育與神經科學等相關領域運用語音刺激誘發電生理反應於不同障礙類別之基礎。

The purpose of this study is to explore the waveform data of speech-evoked auditory brainstem response (sABR) in normal hearing adults who speak Mandarin and to investigate the gender effect. The stimulus, synthesized consonant-vowel monosyllable /da/, was incorporated into a clinical auditory evoked potential (AEP) instrument with clinical parameter settings, such as electrode placement, stimulating, and recording parameters. Twenty bilateral young adults with normal hearing (ten males and ten females) were enrolled in this study. Their average age was 29.00 years (SD = 5.15, range 20–37 years old). With the electrodes placed at Fz-Earlobe-Fpz, speech syllable /da/ was presented to the subjects’ better ear at 80 dB SPL with a rate of 4.3 Hz. Latencies and root mean square (RMS) amplitude of sABR peaks, periodic neural response of fundamental frequency, and composite onset measures (V-A amplitude and V- A slope) were computed and analyzed. Consistency and reproducibility were observed within the corresponding time segment of the neural response waveform. The results also show that there were no gender differences in the above measurements (p ＞ .05). This indicates that a gender effect may not exist at the levels between the auditory brainstem and subcortical regions. Because the measurements of electrophysiological evaluation are susceptible to parameter-setting and individual factors, it is suggested that a norm be established before administering the procedure on subjects. This study provides a basis for applying sABR in subjects with different disorders in various disciplines, such as audiology, speech-language disorders, special education, and the neural sciences.