Baseline neurophysiological noise levels in children with auditory processing disorder

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Vol. 136; no. 4_Supplement; p. 2306
• Main Authors: Nagao, Kyoko, Greenwood, L. Ashleigh, Sheth, Raj C., Gaffney, Rebecca G., Cardinale, Matthew R., Morlet, Thierry
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-10-2014
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4900346

The current study examined the baseline neurophysiological responses between children with auditory processing disorder (APD) and the control group. Auditory event related potentials were recorded in 23 children with APD (ages 7–12 years, mean age = 8.9 years) and 25 age-matched control children in response to a /da/ presented to each ear separately (right and left ear conditions). A no-sound condition was recorded as well. Baseline neurophysiological activity was measured as the root mean square amplitude of the 100 ms pre-stimulus period. Preliminary analysis of data from 19 children with APD and 13 controls indicated that the APD group showed significantly greater pre-stimulus amplitude than the control group in the left ear condition, F(1, 30) = 4.415, p = 0.044, but we did not find significant group differences in the no-sound and right ear conditions, F(1, 30) = 2.237, p = 0.15 and F(1, 30) = 0.088, p = 0.77, respectively. The results suggest that children with APD may need a longer time period to return to a resting state than control children when the left ear is stimulated. Hence, these results may indicate asymmetrical neural activities of the auditory pathways in APD.