Auditory Brainstem Response and Behavioral Audiometry: Developmental Correlates

Abstract
• Developmental correlates of auditory brainstem evoked responses (ABRs) and behavioral audiometry in a total of 112 normal subjects consisting of 78 infants (age, 1 to 18 months), 24 children (age, 2 to 5 years), and ten adults (age, 18 to 22 years) were studied to provide normative data for audiological and neurological applications. Thresholds of ABR, as determined by minimum stimulus intensities evoking wave V, decreased with age. Neonates had the highest ABR thresholds, and adults had the lowest. A similar pattern was observed for behavioral sensitivity as that for the ABR thresholds. Response functions determined by both methods converged with age. They crossed between the ages of 2 and 3 years. There was a trend for all peak latencies to decrease with age. This effect was particularly pronounced for the later ABR components. (Arch Otolaryngol 106:564-566, 1980)