Maturational effects on newborn ERPs measured in the mismatch negativity paradigm

The mismatch negativity (MMN) component of event-related potentials (ERPs), a measure of passive change detection, is suggested to develop early in comparison to other ERP components, and an MMN-like response has been measured even from preterm infants. The MMN response in adults is negative in polarity at about 150-200 ms. However, the response measured in a typical MMN paradigm can also be markedly different in newborns, even opposite in polarity. This has been suggested to be related to maturational factors. To verify that suggestion, we measured ERPs of 21 newborns during quiet sleep to rarely occurring deviant tones of 1100 Hz (probability 12%) embedded among repeated standard tones of 1000 Hz in an oddball sequence. Gestational age (GA) and two cardiac measures, vagal tone (V) and heart period (HP), were used as measures of maturation. GA and HP explained between 36% and 42% of the total variance of the individual ERP peak amplitude (the largest deflection of the difference wave at a time window of 150-375 ms) at different scalp locations. In the discriminant function analyses, GA and HP as classifying variables differentiated infants in whom the peak of the difference wave had positive polarity from those with a negative polarity at an accuracy level ranging from 72% to 91%. These results demonstrate that during quiet sleep, maturational factors explain a significant portion of the ERP difference wave amplitude in terms of its polarity, indicating that the more mature the ERPs are, the more positive the amplitude. The present study suggests that maturational effects should be taken into account in ERP measurements using MMN paradigms with young infants.