Mismatch Negativity in the Assessment of Central Auditory Function

The mismatch negativity (MMN) is an auditory evoked potential that is undergoing research both on its basic characteristics and its potential clinical applications. Current work indicates that the MMN is a passively elicited measure of the brain's response to stimulus change and is therefore a measure of auditory discrimination. If the MMN can be evoked by acoustic stimulus differences that are important in everyday communication, it may serve as a tool for evaluating central auditory processing in individuals whose hearing sensitivity is normal but whose history and behavior indicate difficulties in auditory perception.In this Short Course, we provide an overview of the MMN, how it is recorded and current thinking on what it reflects. We describe its characteristics in normal school-age children, particularly in response to speech stimuli. We also describe our early experience with populations for whom the assessment of central auditory processing is important for clinical management.