Objective: The current study examined the frequency specificity of NB chirps by comparing the spectral characteristics of 500-, 1000-, 2000- and 4000-Hz NB CE-Chirp LS® stimuli with those of 2-1-2 tones. Design: Spectral characteristics including the center frequency, main lobe bandwidth, and stimulus energy changes after stopband filtering were compared. The bandwidth was computed as the difference between the upper and lower frequencies at -20 dB cutoff points of the main lobe; the centre frequency was determined as the geometric mean of the upper and lower frequencies at the -20 dB cutoff points. Results: At 100 dB peSPL, the mainlobe bandwidths of the 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz NB CE-Chirp® LS acoustic spectra were 1.8-1.9 times wider than the acoustic spectra for the 2-1-2 tones; the 4000 Hz NB CE-Chirp® LS bandwidths were 1.4-1.5 times wider than those of the 2-1-2 tones. The energy of NB CE-Chirp® LS stimuli was concentrated within ±0.75 octave of the center frequency, compared to ±0.5 octave for 2-1-2 tones. Conclusion: NB CE-Chirp® LS stimuli demonstrated poorer frequency specificity compared with 2-1-2 tones. Further studies are needed to investigate the place specificity of the ABRs to NB CE-Chirp® LS before implementing them clinically.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Funding for this research was provided by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant to Susan Small (RGPIN-2018-04655). Financial support for Ronald Adjekum was provided by: (i) a Four Year Fellowship from the University of British Columbia (UBC), and (ii) the UBC School of Audiology and Speech Sciences.

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The stimulus waveforms recorded for and analyzed in the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.