Maturation in auditory event‐related potentials explains variation in language ability in children

Abstract

Processing of auditory information in the cortex continues to develop into later childhood and adolescence. Recent research has indicated that intraclass correlation (ICC) is the best method for capturing maturation in auditory event-related potentials (AEPs) of school-age children. However, the sensitivity of the ICC approach in discerning AEP changes in children has not been consistently demonstrated and positive results have not been replicated. We attempted this replication and further explored whether AEP maturation estimated using the ICC approach predicts cognitive and linguistic abilities in addition to chronological age. We measured AEPs in response to simple tones in groups of 7-, 8-, 9-and 10-year olds with typical development (N = 67) and used ICC to estimate the age equivalent of each child's AEP (AEP-age). Results indicated that ICC differentiated 7-to 8-year-old children from 9-to 10-year-old children and that AEP-age predicted both chronological age and significant, unique variance in language ability, but not in nonverbal IQ. Our findings support the view that auditory organization in children reflects both general developmental maturation and more specific development of language skills, and support the future use of AEP-age to identify and understand individual differences in brain maturation in typically developing and clinical populations.

Dynamics of spontaneous alpha activity correlate with language ability in young children

“…One future direction is to clarify the cognitive mechanisms that relate resting-state alpha oscillation to language ability. Our work, and work from other groups, suggests that immature processing of auditory stimuli, including those presented in rapid succession, is related to language disorders [101][102][103][104], particularly impairment in receptive language [104][105][106]. It will be important to investigate whether auditory perception mediates the relation between alpha oscillatory activity and language ability.…”

Immature Auditory Evoked Potentials in Children With Moderate–Severe Developmental Language Disorder

“…Additionally, when compared to traditional analytical methodologies such as time-frequency or independent component analysis, ICC analysis alone allowed for generation of an AEP maturity estimate at the level of the individual child (Bishop, Anderson, Reid, & Fox, 2011). The sensitivity and reliability of AEP age-equivalent estimation in individual children via ICC was replicated in our study of children with typical development aged 7, 8, 9, and 10 years (Kwok et al, 2018).…”

“…On average, the AEP waveform of each child with DLD consist of 107 artifact-free EEG trials. Four normative grand average waveforms were created by averaging the AEP waveforms of sixty-seven children with typical development in each of the 7-, 8-, 9-, and 10-year-old age groups (Kwok et al, 2018). On average, the AEP waveform of each child with typical development consist of 110 artifact-free EEG trials.…”

“…Lastly, McArthur, Atkinson and Ellis (2009) found that children with DLD had AEP-waveforms that differed from controls at electrode C3. To date, no study has attempted to estimate AEP ageequivalent in individual children with DLD, as has been completed by Bishop et al (2011) and Kwok et al (2018) in children with typical development. Doing so would provide an opportunity to evaluate the immature auditory processing account of DLD in a way that avoids some of the confounds associated with attempting to isolate individual AEP components, which may have contributed to conflicting findings in past neurophysiological studies.…”

“…In the present study, we examined the immature auditory processing account of DLD by measuring auditory cortical responses to a single pure tone in a group of 7-10-year-old children with DLD. The AEPs of children with DLD were compared to our previously reported normative waveforms of children with typical development (Kwok et al, 2018) using ICC, and an estimate of each child's auditory cortical maturity (i.e., a "brain age equivalent") was generated. Using these AEP maturity estimates, we then examined four research questions: (a) Do children with DLD differ from children with typical development in their AEP maturity overall?…”