Processing of highly novel auditory events in children and adults: an event-related potential study.
In this study, the neural mechanisms of novelty detection in children and adults were examined by means of novelty-elicited event-related potentials. The gross morphology of the event-related potentials elicited by complex, novel stimuli was similar in children and adults, suggesting that processing of novel acoustic information is essentially similar across the age groups. The more frontally distributed P3 components and the larger late frontal negativities in children than in adults suggest an age-related change in activity in the frontal part of the brain. This is consistent with the findings showing that the structural maturation of the frontal cortex does not appear to be completed until late adolescence.
Määttä
Sara
S
Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, Kuopio University Hospital, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland. sara.maatta@kuh.fi
Saavalainen
Pia
P
Könönen
Mervi
M
Pääkkönen
Ari
A
Muraja-Murro
Anu
A
Partanen
Juhani
J
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000254:growth & development* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male