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Updated: Jun 10, 2026
Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
Maturation of auditory evoked potentials from 6 to 48 months: prediction to 3 and 4 year language and cognitive
Naseem Choudhury1, April A Benasich
1Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, 197 University Ave., Newark, NJ 07102, USA. nchoudhu@andromeda.rutgers.edu
Objective:
To investigate the maturation of long-latency auditory evoked potentials (LLAEP) from 6 to 48 months in infants with a family history of language impairment (FH+) and control infants (FH-).
Methods:
LLAEPs of seventeen FH+ infants were compared to 28 FH- infants at 6, 9, 12, 16, 24, 36 and 48 months. Participants received a passive oddball paradigm using fast- and slow-rate non-linguistic auditory stimuli and at 36 and 48 months completed a battery of standardized language and cognitive tests.
Results:
Overall, the morphology of LLAEP responses differed for fast- versus slow-rate stimuli. Significant age-related changes in latency and amplitude were observed. Group differences, favoring FH- infants, in the rate of maturation of LLAEPs were found. Responses to fast-rate stimuli predicted language abilities at 36 and 48 months of age.
Conclusions:
The development of LLAEP in FH+ children is modulated by differences in the rate of maturation as well as variations in temporal processing abilities.
Significance:
These findings provide evidence for the role of non-linguistic auditory processes in early language development and illustrate the utility of using a perceptual-processing skills model to further our understanding of the precursors of language development and impairment.
