Peer-reviewed article
A systematic review of the maturation of selected cortical auditory event-related potentials in passive paradigms: Developmental changes from infancy to early adulthood.
Martin I, Arora J, Hamill L, Cho E, Scanavini G et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This systematic review examines how brain electrical activity related to hearing and language processing develops from infancy to adulthood. The authors studied four types of neural responses measured through EEG, tracking changes in timing, strength, and brain location as children grow. The findings show that neural responses generally become faster and more focused with age, providing a reference for normal development.
Key points
- Latency of all auditory ERP components decreased with increasing age across development
- N100 amplitude tended to decrease with age; MMN amplitude remained stable or slightly declined
- P3a amplitude typically increased during early childhood before decreasing in early school age
- N400 amplitude consistently declined across the lifespan
- All components showed a shift toward more focal brain activation with increasing age
Limitations
This is a neuroscientific technical review focused on brain physiology rather than child well-being outcomes or health interventions. It provides normative neurological data but does not evaluate whether interventions improve children's health, development, or life circumstances.
Abstract
Electroencephalography (EEG) offers a unique window into the neural dynamics of cognition, particularly through event-related potentials (ERPs) that index sensory, attentional, and cognitive processes. EEG and ERP measures are widely used to study atypical neurodevelopment in children due to their sensitivity to disruptions caused by genetic and acquired brain disorders. We conducted a systematic review of the literature on the typical presentation of four core cortical auditory and language-related ERP components, extracted during passive paradigms, from infancy to early adulthood. These components reflect neural responses to the passive perception of discrete stimuli (N100), the automatic detection of deviant stimuli (Mismatch Negativity (MMN), sometimes in children referred to as the Mismatch Response (MMR)), the allocation of attention to deviant stimuli (P3a), and language processing of discrete stimuli (N400). Drawing from 61 studies, many of which reported on a single component within a specific age range, we chart developmental trajectories of ERP latencies, amplitudes, and scalp topographies. Across all components, latency tended to decrease with increasing age. Amplitude trajectories varied: N100 amplitude tended to decrease; MMN amplitude remained relatively stable or showed a slight decline; P3a amplitude typically increased during early childhood before decreasing in early school age; N400 amplitude consistently declined. Scalp topographical reports, among all components, revealed a shift toward increased focal activation with increasing age. Together, these findings provide a normative foundation for acoustic and auditory language processing in the context of the selected components in typical development, serving as a necessary reference point for understanding and assessing atypical development.