Middle latency auditory evoked responses in normal term infants: a longitudinal study

Middle latency auditory evoked responses (MLAERs) were measured in 21 normal term infants, three to five days after birth and then at 6 weeks, 7 months and 1 year of age. A polyphasic waveform was elicited during natural sleep in all infants at each recording session by monaural click stimulation at a rate of 9 per second. A 70 dBHL stimulus was found to be optimal as the MLAER became less well defined when the stimulus intensity approached the threshold hearing level. The first 60 to 70 msec of the waveform was found to be most stable, with decreasing detectability of peaks at longer latencies. There was no change in wave latency or reproducibility of MLAERs recorded during different sleep states. Waves Po and Na showed a significant decrease in latency with increasing stimulus intensity at term and/or 6 weeks of age. This was not evident for the remainder of the waveform. Waves Po, Na, Pa, Nb, Pb and Nc exhibited significant decreases in latency with age, attaining values indistinguishable from adults by 7 months of age.