Age-related changes in child and adolescent event-related potential component morphology, amplitude and latency to standard and target stimuli in an auditory oddball task

Previous studies of auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) to an oddball task in children and adolescents focus on responses to target stimuli and provide little detail of age-related changes to standard stimuli. In this study, age-related changes in behavioural responding and ERP component morphology, amplitude and latency to standard and target stimuli were examined. Auditory ERPs to an oddball task were recorded from the midline sites (Fz, Cz and Pz) of 50 subjects aged 8 to 17 years 11 months. Behavioural results indicate a decrease in reaction time and errors of commission with age. To standard tones, N2 amplitude and N1 latency showed a linear decrease with age while an increase with age was found for P2 amplitude. For target tones, N1 and N2 amplitude and N1, N2 and P3 latency showed a linear decrease with age and P2 and P3 amplitude showed a linear increase with age. Age-related changes in the morphology of the ERP elicited by standard tones (especially the N2 and P2 components), as well as concurrent morphological changes in standard and target tones, are discussed.