Cortical auditory evoked potentials in children with developmental dysphasia.

Like all auditory evoked potentials, the cortical auditory evoked potentials are nonspecific for the disease, but they provide information about the auditory system function. It appears that the cortical auditory potentials can be used to study the disorders of speech comprehension and their pathology is related to the role of the temporal processing of the auditory stimuli. Cortical auditory potentials were studied in children with developmental dysphasia (DD) to examine maturation of the central auditory pathways. Study 1 (group of 6-7 yr. old children with DD): the responses to verbal stimuli (P3 waves) were recorded with prolonged latencies from the left dominant hemisphere. Study 2: the latencies of P2 waves (to tonal stimuli) were being shortened within age-comparison of groups of 6-7 and 9-10 yr. old children with DD. Great variability in P2 and P3 latencies, and their prolongation, compared to normal healthy children, reflects functional changes in the central hearing function. Latency differences may be related to a common temporal deficit to be one of the possible underlying factors in developmental dysphasia. The underlying phenomenon may be connected to cortical auditory processing.