Maturation of auditory event-related potentials across adolescence

Adolescence is a time of great change in the brain in terms of structure and function. It is possible to track the development of neural function across adolescence using auditory event-related potentials (ERPs). We measured passive auditory ERPs to pure tones and consonant-vowel (CV) syllables in 90 children and adolescents aged 10-18 years, as well as 10 adults. With one exception, the pattern of results were the same for tones and speech: Across adolescence, the P1 ERP peak decreased in size and latency, the N1 increased in size and decreased in latency, the P2 remained constant in size, and the N2 decreased in size but remained stable across adolescence. The exception was P2 latency, which increased for speech but remained stable for tones. Interesting step-like changes were observed for N1 latency for both tones and speech stimuli in 15- to 16-year-olds. These may stem from rapid hormonal changes that affect neurotransmitter activity of the ERP-generating neurons.