Middle and Late Latency ERP Components Discriminate between Adults, Typical Children, and Children with Sensory Processing Disorders

This study examined whether combinations of middle latency sensory evoked potential components and late components, possibly indicative of cognitive processing, can discriminate between three sample groups; 18 adults (20–55 years), 25 typical children (5–10 years) and 28 children with sensory processing disorders (SPD) (5–12 years). Electroencephalography (EEG) recordings were made while participants heard random presentations of two auditory stimuli (1 and 3 kHz) each at two intensities (50 and 70 dB). Amplitude and latency measurements were obtained for the N1, P2, N2, and P3 components from the averaged event-related potential (ERP) for each of the four auditory stimuli. Discriminant analyses revealed two functions, one which described the relationship of the components on SPD deficit continuum and one which described the relationship of these components on a developmental continuum. Together, these two functions correctly classified 90.5% of the participants as to their group membership. These results are discussed in relation to neurodevelopmental theories.

[1]  P. Davies,et al.  Maturation of sensory gating performance in children with and without sensory processing disorders. , 2009, International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology.

[2]  H. Lüders,et al.  American Electroencephalographic Society Guidelines for Standard Electrode Position Nomenclature , 1991, Journal of clinical neurophysiology : official publication of the American Electroencephalographic Society.

[3]  R. Näätänen.  The role of attention in auditory information processing as revealed by event-related potentials and other brain measures of cognitive function , 1990, Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

[4]  R. Näätänen,et al.  Maturation of cortical sound processing as indexed by event-related potentials , 2002, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[5]  G. Adler,et al.  Auditory stimulus processing at different stimulus intensities as reflected by auditory evoked potentials , 1991, Biological Psychiatry.

[6]  J. Knott,et al.  Regarding the American Electroencephalographic Society guidelines for standard electrode position nomenclature: a commentary on the proposal to change the 10-20 electrode designators. , 1993, Journal of clinical neurophysiology : official publication of the American Electroencephalographic Society.

[7]  D. McIntosh,et al.  Prevalence of parents' perceptions of sensory processing disorders among kindergarten children. , 2004, The American journal of occupational therapy : official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association.

[8]  Marcel Kinsbourne,et al.  Sensory and attention abnormalities in autistic spectrum disorders , 2006, Autism : the international journal of research and practice.

[9]  S. Parush,et al.  Co-occurrence of developmental delays among preschool children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder. , 2006, Developmental medicine and child neurology.

[10]  T. Picton,et al.  The N1 wave of the human electric and magnetic response to sound: a review and an analysis of the component structure. , 1987, Psychophysiology.

[11]  S. Rogers,et al.  Annotation: what do we know about sensory dysfunction in autism? A critical review of the empirical evidence. , 2005, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[12]  E. Courchesne,et al.  Sensory modulation of auditory stimuli in children with Autism And Receptive Developmental Language Disorder: Event-related brain potential evidence , 1995, Journal of autism and developmental disorders.

[13]  J. Eggermont,et al.  Maturation of human central auditory system activity: evidence from multi-channel evoked potentials , 2000, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[14]  J. Eggermont,et al.  Maturation of human central auditory system activity: separating auditory evoked potentials by dipole source modeling , 2002, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[15]  G. Adler,et al.  Influence of stimulus intensity on AEP components in the 80- to 200-millisecond latency range. , 1989, Audiology : official organ of the International Society of Audiology.

[16]  S. Hillyard.  SENSATION, PERCEPTION AND ATTENTION: ANALYSIS USING ERPs , 1978 .

[17]  Tobias Banaschewski,et al.  Annotation: what electrical brain activity tells us about brain function that other techniques cannot tell us - a child psychiatric perspective. , 2007, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[18]  C. Barthélémy,et al.  Auditory associative cortex dysfunction in children with autism: evidence from late auditory evoked potentials (N1 wave–T complex) , 1999, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[19]  S. Hillyard,et al.  Human auditory evoked potentials. I. Evaluation of components. , 1974, Electroencephalography and clinical neurophysiology.

[20]  O. Salonen,et al.  Auditory Evoked Magnetic Fields to Tones and Pseudowords in Healthy Children and Adults , 1995, Journal of clinical neurophysiology : official publication of the American Electroencephalographic Society.

[21]  John Polich,et al.  Cognitive Brain Potentials , 1993 .

[22]  C. Barthélémy,et al.  Temporal prominence of auditory evoked potentials (N1 wave) in 4-8-year-old children. , 1997, Psychophysiology.

[23]  Guy Dove,et al.  Linking Brainwaves to the Brain: An ERP Primer , 2005, Developmental neuropsychology.

[24]  P. Davies,et al.  Validating the diagnosis of sensory processing disorders using EEG technology. , 2007, The American journal of occupational therapy : official publication of the American Occupational Therapy Association.

[25]  P. Huttenlocher,et al.  Regional differences in synaptogenesis in human cerebral cortex , 1997, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[26]  F. Rothhammer,et al.  Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder involves differential cortical processing in a visual spatial attention paradigm , 2006, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[27]  S. Segalowitz,et al.  Charting the maturation of the frontal lobe: An electrophysiological strategy , 2004, Brain and Cognition.