Maturation of the auditory event-related potentials during the first year of life.

This study examined the maturation of cortical auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) from birth until 12 months of age. In the 15 infants studied, all ERP peaks observable at 12 months of age, the P150, N250, P350, and N450 were identifiable already at birth, As in previous studies, the amplitudes of the ERP peaks increased and latencies shortened with increasing age. In addition, the time courses of the amplitude growth of these peaks differed from each other. It was concluded, that the generators of all the infantile ERP peaks are functional already at birth, and that the maturational changes in the waveform morphology can mostly be accounted for by the changing relative strengths of the different generators.