Slope analysis of Auditory Brainstem Responses in children at risk of central auditory processing disorders

The method of slope vectors was used to quantify Auditory Brainstem Responses (ABR) obtained from nine normal children and nine children at risk for central auditory processing disorders (CAPD) with language impairment, for monaural and binaural stimulation conditions. Slopes thus obtained were subjected to K-Means Cluster Analysis. Distinction between the two groups was obtained only for binaural stimulation conditions, wherein all normal children were grouped under cluster 1 with higher slope values and 6 out of 9 CAPD children were grouped under cluster 2 with lower slopes. The results suggest that there may be several subcategories among children who are found to be at risk for CAPD. One of the subcategories may comprise children who exhibit poor ABR morphology, especially during binaural stimulation conditions, which could be due to binaural interference.