Effect of gender on the mismatch negativity auditory evoked potential

Mismatch negativity (MMN) was measured on normal-hearing young adult women and men to determine the effect of gender on this auditory evoked potential (AEP). In the experimental condition, recordings were obtained for 1000-Hz tone bursts presented at 75 dB nHL (standard stimuli) and 60 dB nHL (deviant stimuli). AEPs also were obtained in a control condition in which all stimuli were presented at 60 dB nHL; however, 15 percent of these responses were averaged to represent a response analogous to the experimental deviant response. The MMN was derived by subtracting the analogous control waveform from the experimental deviant waveform. Measures of peak-to-peak amplitude, peak latency, and area-under-the-curve were obtained for each derived waveform. Analysis of these data indicated no significant gender differences in peak latency of the MMN response. However, peak-to-peak amplitude and area-under-the-curve were significantly larger for women than for men.