The effects of age on auditory event-related potentials

The effects of age on event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited during a two-tone discrimination ("oddball") task were examined in 97 normal subjects aged from 17-80 years. Strong relationships were found between age and the latencies of the later ERP components N200 and P300. Furthermore the correlation between age and N200 latency at Pz was marginally higher than that of age and P300 latency. For the entire sample, the increase in P300 latency as a function of age was best described at Cz and Pz by linear regression equations. However, a segmented line model better described the P300/age relationship at Fz--the increase in P300 latency with age in subjects over 61 was five times that of subjects younger than 61 years. In this study the task required button-press identification of the targets--the significance of increased age and a delay in N200 latency is discussed with reference to the possibility of N200 latency indexing the speed of cognitive processing.