Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 5, 2026

Quantitative Assessment of Cortical Auditory-tactile Processing in Children with Disabilities
Published on: January 29, 2014
Analysis of p1 latency in normal hearing and profound sensorineural hearing loss
Jeong Hun Jang1, Hyun Kyung Jang, Sung Eun Kim
1Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Insights
The P1 latency in Korean children with normal hearing shortens with age, providing objective measures for auditory pathway maturation. This study establishes normative P1 latency values for Koreans.
Area of Science:
- Auditory Neuroscience
- Developmental Audiology
Background:
- The P1 response, a positive deflection in auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) occurring at 50-150 msec, reflects early auditory processing in children.
- P1 latency typically decreases rapidly during the first 2-3 years of life, reaching approximately 60 msec in adults with normal hearing.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine age-related changes in P1 latency for Korean individuals with normal hearing.
- To compare P1 latency in young patients with profound sensorineural hearing loss before and after cochlear implantation (CI).
Main Methods:
- Auditory evoked potentials were recorded in 53 normal-hearing individuals, 13 pre-CI patients, and 10 post-CI patients.
- A synthesized /ba/ syllable elicited responses, recorded from the frontal scalp.
- Individual grand average waveforms were computed, and P1 latency was visually identified.
Main Results:
- A significant age-related decrease in P1 latency was observed in the normal-hearing group (coefficient, -0.758; P<0.001).
- In the pre-CI group, 10 patients exhibited delayed P1 latencies, and 3 showed no P1 wave.
- Post-CI patients demonstrated a trend towards less delayed P1 latencies compared to pre-CI, but this difference was not statistically significant.
Conclusions:
- This study establishes the first normative P1 latency values by age for the Korean population.
- P1 latency serves as an objective indicator for assessing the maturation of central auditory pathways.
Objectives:
P1 is a robust positivity at a latency of 50-150 msec in the auditory evoked potential of young children. It has been reported that over the first 2-3 years of life, there is a rapid decrease of the latency and the mean P1 latency in adults with normal hearing is approximately 60 msec. This study was designed to evaluate the change of the P1 latency in Koreans with normal hearing according to age and to compare this with the P1 latency of young patients with profound sensorineural hearing loss before and/or after cochlear implantation.
Methods:
Among the patients who visited the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at Seoul National University Hospital from June 2007 to September 2009, the P1 response was recorded in 53 patients in the normal hearing group, in 13 patients in the pre-cochlear implantation (CI) group and in 10 patients in the post-CI group. A synthesized consonant-vowel syllable /ba/ was used to elicit the evoked responses. The evoked responses were collected using the center of the frontal head. For each subject, an individual grand average waveform was computed by averaging the ten recordings. The P1 latency was visually identified as a robust positivity in the waveform.
Results:
For the normal hearing group, the P1 latency showed the pattern of shortening as the age increased (coefficient, -0.758; P<0.001). For the pre-CI group, 10 cases showed delayed latencies and 3 cases did not show the P1 wave. For the post-CI group, the P1 latencies showed a less delayed tendency than those of the pre-CI group, but this was not statistically different.
Conclusion:
This report provides the standard value of the P1 latency at each age in Koreans for the first time and the findings support that the maturation of the central auditory pathways could be measured objectively using the P1 latency.
