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Updated: Aug 25, 2026

Modeling Age-Associated Neurodegenerative Diseases in Caenorhabditis elegans
Published on: August 15, 2020
[Age dependent maturation of NC-ERP]
M Ptok1, P Blachnik, R Schönweiler
1Klinik und Poliklinik für Phoniatrie und Pädaudiologie, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover. Ptok.martin@MH-hannover.de
Background:
Neutral condition event related potentials (NC-ERP) are not suitable for differentiating between children suffering from auditory processing disorders (APD) alone and APD-children with attention deficit disorder. Other factors beside severity of APD may cause "pathological" NC-ERP. Here we raise the question of whether maturational factors may be responsible for disordered NC-ERP.
Methods:
NC-ERP data from 142 APD children (range 5.4-17.2 years; mean 9.8 years) were analysed. Data were grouped according to age of children (I: <7.11 years n=34; II: 8.0-9.11 years n=46; III: 10.0-11.11 years n=39; IV: >12.0 years n=23).
Results:
Pathological NC-ERP were found in 82.3% (group I), 56.6% (group II), 46.2% (group III) and 8.8% (group IV). Additional analyses confirmed no correlation with ADHD.
Discussion:
Although there is a whole body of evidence that late auditory evoked potential may mature with age, it is not known if NC-ERP are also age dependent. Our results that NC-ERP mature with age are consistent with data for other late auditory evoked potentials. Since normative date of NC-ERP for different age groups are still lacking, NC-ERP results in children should be interpreted very cautiously.

