What is one significant advantage of ABR over OAE?

Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) testing is particularly advantageous because it is capable of providing detailed information about varying degrees of hearing loss. While other tests, such as Otoacoustic Emissions (OAE), primarily assess the functionality of the outer hair cells in the cochlea and can indicate the presence of hearing loss, they do not give a definitive measure of the type or degree of hearing loss.

ABR measures the electrical activity in the auditory pathway from the cochlea through the brainstem in response to sound stimuli. This not only allows for the detection of hearing loss, but also differentiates between varying levels of hearing impairment, ranging from mild to profound. As a result, ABR becomes a crucial tool in audiological assessments, particularly in difficult populations such as infants or individuals who cannot provide response feedback.

In contrast, other options do not accurately capture the primary strengths of ABR. For example, while ABR can detect normal hearing levels, it is primarily used to identify and quantify hearing levels rather than simply confirm normalcy. ABR tests can be more time-consuming than OAE tests due to the setup and monitoring required, and the assertion that ABR only tests for mild hearing loss overlooks its capability to assess a wide spectrum of