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Updated: Jul 14, 2026
Preterm EEG: A Multimodal Neurophysiological Protocol
Published on: February 18, 2012
Tone-burst elicited auditory brainstem responses in full-term and pre-term infants
Gary Rance1, Dani Tomlin1, Kelley Graydon1
1Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, The University of Melbourne, Carlton, Victoria, Australia.
Insights
Tone-burst auditory brainstem response (TB-ABR) testing is reliable in healthy preterm infants from 36 weeks gestation. Latencies and thresholds normalize by the due date, showing developmental improvements.
Area of Science:
- Neonatal audiology
- Neurodevelopmental assessments
- Auditory pathway maturation
Background:
- Auditory brainstem response (ABR) is crucial for assessing infant hearing.
- Tone-burst ABR (TB-ABR) provides frequency-specific information.
- Reliability of TB-ABR in preterm infants requires further investigation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the reliability of TB-ABR latencies and thresholds in preterm and full-term infants.
- To determine the earliest gestational age at which TB-ABR is reliable in preterm infants.
- To track changes in TB-ABR measures over the first weeks of life.
Main Methods:
- Recorded TB-ABRs at 500 Hz and 4000 Hz in full-term and preterm infants at two-week intervals.
- Utilized linear mixed models to analyze within-subject changes and group effects.
- Assessed ABR latency and threshold in relation to gestational age and stimulus frequency.
Main Results:
- TB-ABR wave V latencies decreased significantly in preterm infants, normalizing by the due date.
- Preterm infants showed initially elevated thresholds that became equivalent to full-term infants post-term.
- No significant effects of group or birth gestational age on normalized response latency were observed.
Conclusions:
- TB-ABR testing demonstrates reliability in healthy preterm infants starting from 36 weeks gestation.
- Auditory function, as measured by TB-ABR, shows developmental maturation in preterm infants.
- TB-ABR is a dependable tool for monitoring auditory development in preterm neonates.
Objective:
To investigate the reliability of tone-burst auditory brainstem response (TB-ABR) latencies and thresholds in pre-term and full-term infants.
Design:
TB-ABRs to 500 Hz and 4000 Hz tone-burst stimuli were recorded at two-week intervals over the first six weeks of life in a group of full-term infants (40-46 weeks gestational age [GA]) and over ten weeks (36-46 weeks gestation) in a group of preterm infants. Linear mixed model analyses evaluated within-subject changes and the effects of the subject group, age at assessment, and stimulus frequency on ABR latency and threshold.
Study Sample:
Twenty-four infants participated. Nine were full-term (GA: 39-41 weeks) and fifteen were healthy pre-term (GA: 28-34 weeks) at birth.
Results:
TB-ABR wave V latencies at 70 dBnHL decreased throughout the study (p < 0.001) in pre-term babies for both test frequencies by approximately 0.5 ms. There were, however, no group or GA (at birth) effects indicating that response latency normalized in these children by the due date. Similarly, TB-ABR threshold levels in the premature group were elevated (p = 0.001) by approximately 5 dB in pre-term evaluation but were equivalent to those of full-term participants in the post-term assessment period.
Conclusions:
In healthy, pre-term infants, tone-burst ABR testing is reliable from 36 weeks gestation.
