The role of evoked potentials (EPs) in the assessment of the human central auditory nervous system (CANS).

This paper presents an overview of the use of EPs in the assessment of the CANS. Emphasis is laid on recent developments and research efforts centered on appraising how the auditory neural code is processed by the central pathways. It is shown how, in addition to their classical site-of-lesion testing role, EPs can, especially when combined with ecological (mostly speech-like) stimuli, yield highly valuable information on the neurophysiological processes leading to the perception of auditory objects as well as speech. Special space is devoted to the Mismatch Negativity that currently provides the only objective measure of the accuracy with which the CANS detects auditory and phonetic contrasts.