Chirp Analyzer for Estimating Amplitude and Latency of Steady-State Auditory Envelope Following Responses

OBJECTIVE: The envelope following response (EFR) is a clinically relevant evoked potential, reflecting the synchronization of the auditory pathway to the temporal envelope of sounds. Since there is no standard analysis of this potential, we here aim at contrasting the relative accuracy of known time-frequency methods and new strategies for the reliable estimation of the EFR amplitude and latency. METHODS: The EFR was estimated using explicit time-frequency methods: the Short-Term Fourier Transform (STFT) and the Morlet Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT). Furthermore, the Chirp Analyzer (CA) was introduced as a new tool for the reliable estimation of the EFR. The applicability of the methods was tested in animal and human recordings. RESULTS: Using simulated data for comparing the estimation performance by each method, we found that the CA is able to correctly estimate EFR amplitudes, without the typical bias observed in the STFT estimates. The CA is more robust to noise than the CWT method, although with higher sensitivity to the latency of the response. Thus, the estimation of the EFR amplitude with any of the methods, but especially with CA, should be corrected by using the estimated delay. Analysis of real data confirmed these results and showed that all methods offer estimated EFRs similar to those found in previous studies using the classical Fourier Analyzer. CONCLUSION AND SIGNIFICANCE: The CA is a potential valuable tool for the analysis of the EFR, which could be extended for the estimation of oscillatory evoked potentials of other sensory modalities.