OBJECTIVE DETECTION OF AUDITORY-EVOKED POTENTIALS - COMPARISON OF SEVERAL STATISTICAL TESTS IN THE FREQUENCY-DOMAIN ON THE BASIS OF NEAR-THRESHOLD ABR DATA

A fully objective electric response audiometry (ERA) requires an objec tive response detection by an appropriate statistical test. The Raylei gh test, Watson's U-2 test, Kuiper's test and Hodges-Ajne's lest check the phase angle distribution of a Fourier harmonics. The modified Ray leigh test uses, in addition to the phase angles, the amplitude inform ation in the form of the ranks of the spectral amplitudes, whereas mag nitude-squared coherence (MSC) uses the spectral amplitudes themselves . The signal detection performance of these six tests was judged on th e basis of a sample of near-threshold click-evoked ABR. MSC was found to be the best suited test out of the six tests investigated, but the performance differences to the modified Rayleigh test (and even to the unmodified Rayleigh test), and to Watson's test as well were only sli ght. Hodges-Ajne's test and Kuiper's lest have the lowest sensitivity and the mean time required for response detection is longest for Hodge s-Ajne's test.