title: The theoretical distribution of evoked brainstem activity in preterm, high-risk, and healthy infants.
abstract: The observed scores for a number of parameters (amplitude, latency, interwave differences, and ratios) of the brainstem auditory evoked potential (BAEP) were plotted in order to ascertain the sampling distribution at selected ages. Comparisons between preterm and high-risk infants and healthy controls were also made. The cumulative frequency histograms for all but one BAEP variable were found to be normally distributed. Although this finding held across the age and diagnostic category, healthy and risk populations revealed distinct curves due primarily to the dispersion of scores rather than to the shape of the distributions. Only the amplitude ratio of waves 1 and 5 did not match the normal curve. The assumption of normality which underlies most "standard" statistical analyses can therefore be met for many BAEP measures.
mesh_terms: D001933:Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007232:Infant, Newborn, Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D007234:Infant, Premature; D007235:Infant, Premature, Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology