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An auditory potential is an electroencephalographic (EEG) response, less than a millivolt, time-locked to an auditory sound such as a click, tone, or speech sound. It is recorded from scalp electrodes and consists of averaged responses to a series of sounds. Averaging removes background EEG activity, usually considered to be unrelated to the auditory potential.
A brief sound such as a click triggers at least 15 waveform peaks that unfold over the first second (Picton et al. 1974). These alternating positive and negative peaks reflect the flow of auditory information from the brainstem to the cortex. The short-latency peaks appearing during the first tenth of a second (10 ms) originate from the primary auditory pathway of the brainstem.
Central Auditory Processing Disorders (CAPDs) were described in early 1940s and have recently become of interest to ASD researchers (see Ocak et al. 2018). Auditory middle latency responses are...
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References and Readings
Andreassi, J. L. (2007). Psychophysiology: Human behavior and physiological response (5th ed.). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Chermak, G. D., & Musiek, F. E. (1992). Managing central auditory processing disorders in children and youth. American Journal of Audiology, 1, 61–65.
Handy, T. C. (Ed.). (2005). Event-related potentials: A methods handbook. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Jeste, S. S., & Nelson, C. A. (2009). Event related potentials in the understanding of autism spectrum disorders: An analytical review. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 39, 495–510.
Luck, S. J. (2005). An introduction to the event-related potential technique. Cambridge: MIT Press.
McPherson, D. L., Ballachanda, B. B., & Kaf, W. (2008). Middle and longa latency evoked potentials. In R. J. Roeser, M. Valente, & H. H. Dunn (Eds.), Audiology: Diagnosis (pp. 443–477). New York: Thieme.
Ocak, E., Eshraghi, R. S., Danesh, A., Mittal, R., & Eshraghi, A. A. (2018). Central auditory processing disorders in individuals with autism spectrum disorders. Balkan Medical Journal, 35(5), 367–372. https://doi.org/10.4274/balkanmedj.2018.0853.
Picton, T. W., Hillyard, S. A., Krausz, H. I., & Galambos, R. (1974). Human auditory evoked potentials. I: Evaluation of components. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 36, 179–190.
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Lunde, S.E. (2020). Auditory Potentials. In: Volkmar, F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6435-8_711-3
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