title: Objective measurement of high-level auditory cortical function in children.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examined whether the N2 latency of the cortical auditory evoked potential (CAEP) could be used as an objective indicator of temporal processing ability in normally hearing children.
  
  
  METHODS
  The N2 latency was evoked using three temporal processing paradigms: (1) differences in voice-onset-times (VOTs); (2) speech-in-noise using the CV/da/embedded in broadband noise (BBN) with varying signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs); and (3) 16Hz amplitude-modulated (AM) BBN presented (i) alone and (ii) following an unmodulated BBN, using four modulation depths. Thirty-four school-aged children with normal hearing, speech, language and reading were stratified into two groups: 5-7 years (n=13) and 8-12 years (n=21).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The N2 latency shifted significantly and systematically with differences in VOT and SNR, and was significantly different in the two AM-BBN conditions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For children without an N1 peak in the cortical waveform, the N2 peak can be used as a sensitive measure of temporal processing for these stimuli.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  N2 latency of the CAEP can be used as an objective measure of temporal processing ability in a paediatric population with temporal processing disorder who are difficult to assess via behavioural response.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Health Sciences Center, Kuwait University, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Electronic address: aseel.m@hsc.edu.kw.
authors.forename: Aseel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Almeqbel
authors.affiliation: Linguistics Department, Faculty of Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia; The HEARing Cooperative Research Centre (CRC), Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: McMahon
mesh_terms: D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005072:Evoked Potentials, Auditory / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Amplitude-modulated broadband noise (AM-BBN); Cortical auditory evoked potentials (CAEP); N2 latency; Speech-in-noise; Temporal processing; Voice-onset-time (VOT)