Heart rate response audiometry: bases, clinical techniques, and limitations.

Although a great deal of information is available concerning cardiovascular responsitivity to sensory stimuli, little is known regarding the pragmatic application of cardiac response measures to the problems of audiological assessment. Some relationships between arousal systems and cardiovascular function have begun to emerge, and the assessment of communicative behavior using HR response measures has become a more realistic goal, but the clinician who desires to utilize these techniques for audiological evaluation faces serious difficulties until further basic research has been conducted. Eisenberg (9) observed that instrumentation for measuring HR changes to auditory stimuli was research oriented and that measurement of HR data, although holding promise for the future, could not be realistically viewed as a clinical tool for audiological evaluation. Indeed, Eisenberg challenged audiologists to suspend the clinical application of these procedures until sufficient basic research evidence has accumulated to operationally define the problems at hand. Until that challenge is met, cardiotachometry will remain only a potentially rewarding procedure for assessment of the auditory system.