Distribution of auditory brainstem potentials over the scalp and nasopharynx in humans.

Auditory brainstem potentials were recorded from various scalp and nasopharyngeal sites referenced both to a noncephalic site and to certain scalp locations in normal humans. The distribution of amplitudes and latencies of the components were defined. There were significant amplitude, polarity, and latency asymmetries over the scalp in both referential and differential recordings. The data indicated that several of the ABR components have generator sources that are lateralized and move through the brainstem in particular orientations.