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Updated: Mar 1, 2026
Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
Published on: July 1, 2015
Short-term outcome of brainstem auditory function in term infants after discharge from the neonatal intensive care
1a Division of Neonatology , Children's Hospital, Fudan University , Shanghai , China.
Objectives:
To examine short-term outcome of brainstem auditory function in term infants after discharge from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Methods:
Brainstem auditory evoked response (BAER) was recorded and analysed at various click rates at 2-4 months of age in 43 term NICU graduates. The data were compared with those in age-matched normal controls.
Results:
The threshold of BAER in the NICU graduates was marginally elevated. The graduates also showed an increase in wave III latency at 91/s and wave V latency at all 21-91/s. The I-V interval was increased at 51 and 91/s, whereas the I-III and III-V intervals were slightly increased, with no significant differences from normal controls at any click rates. The amplitudes of waves I and V in the NICU graduates were moderately reduced at all click rates. Wave III amplitudes were reduced at 51 and 91/s. None of the slopes of BAER variables-rate functions in the NICU graduates differed significantly from normal controls.
Conclusions:
The BAER was moderately abnormal in the NICU graduates, suggesting that brainstem auditory function is moderately impaired at 2-4 months of age after discharge. There is a need to monitor postnatal auditory and neural development for NICU graduates.
