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Maturation of auditory brainstem response in early term infants at 6 weeks and 9 months

Mingyan Li1, Li Zhu1, Dan Yao1

  • 1Children's Hospital Zhejiang University School of Medicine, China.

International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
|December 18, 2018
PubMed

Insights

Early term infants show delayed auditory brainstem development compared to full term infants. This suggests their central auditory system may be less mature in the first year of life.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Developmental Pediatrics
  • Auditory Neuroscience

Background:

  • Infants born at 37-38 weeks gestation (early term) face higher risks of neurodevelopmental issues.
  • Auditory neural maturation in early term infants is not well understood.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To compare auditory brainstem response (ABR) development in early term (ET) and full term (FT) infants.
  • Investigate differences in auditory pathway maturation between ET and FT infants.

Main Methods:

  • Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) testing was conducted on 126 infants at 6 weeks and 93 at 9 months.
  • Gestational age was used to categorize infants into early term (37-38 weeks) and full term (39-41 weeks).
  • Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) compared ABR variables between groups, controlling for confounders.

Main Results:

  • At 6 weeks, ET infants had prolonged latencies for waves III, V, and intervals I-III, III-V, I-V compared to FT infants (p<0.03).
  • By 9 months, ET infants still exhibited longer wave V latency and I-V interval (p<0.02) than FT infants.
  • Both groups showed developmental improvements in ABR parameters over time.

Conclusions:

  • Early term infants display a distinct pattern of auditory brainstem development compared to full term infants.
  • Prolonged auditory conduction times in ET infants indicate a less mature central auditory system up to 9 months post-birth.
  • Findings highlight potential neurodevelopmental differences in auditory processing for early term infants.
Abstract

Keywords:
Auditory brainstem responseEarly termFull termGestational age

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