Where do brain responses to speech come from, and what can they tell us about hearing? Speech sounds are excellent for eliciting evoked potentials such as the frequency following response, but their complexity can lead to misleading interpretations. This talk will demystify speech-evoked responses by showing how they relate to peripheral and central auditory encoding, using measured data and an auditory model. Along the way, we will explore potential clinical applications in light of evidence with respect to hearing, aging and auditory processing. We will also see why studies have tended to rely on male voices and female listeners, and why this needs to change.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to explain the bias for and problems with relying on male voices and female listeners.
2. Participants will be able to identify common errors in understanding the meaning of speech-evoked responses.
3. Participants will be able to describe potential clinical applications of speech evoked responses based on current evidence.