Electrically evoked brainstem potentials in cochlear implant patients with multi-electrode stimulation

The electrically evoked brainstem potential was measured in cochlear implant patients with Symbion multichannel electrode system. In the first experiment, electrodes within the implant were stimulated individually and the responses and sensitivity across electrodes and across subjects were evaluated. The typical response waveform consisted of a series of three peaks, the most prominent occurring at approximately 4 ms after stimulus onset. The amplitude of the largest peak typically showed an orderly increase with increasing current level while latency changes were relatively small. In the second experiment, two electrodes were stimulated simultaneously in order to evaluate the relative independence of the neural populations being stimulated by the different electrode pairs. The responses were compared when two electrode pairs were stimulated simultaneously with current pulses in phase and when the same electrodes were stimulated with current pulses inverted relative to each other. Both stimulation conditions showed similar growth in response amplitude with level but different sensitivity. The differences in sensitivity between these two conditions may be indicative of the degree of overlap in the stimulated neural populations.