BRAINSTEM AUDITORY EVOKED POTENTIAL IN DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS

Brainstem auditory evoked potential is a physiological technique for evaluation of auditory pathway. A number of electrical potentials can be recorded from the human scalp following acoustic stimulation. The potentials which occur within 10 msec of the stimulus onset termed the brain stem auditory evoked potentials (BAEPs). Latency appears to be the most stable measure and in consequence knowledge of the exact limits of normal latency of each wave is important. Since age effects on central conduction time in the acoustic pathway are still debated, the following study was conducted to investigate possible age differences in BAEP component latencies in different age groups. BAEP were elicited from seventy five normoacoustic male subjects aged from 11-60 years. The recorded results are grouped according to patients age ranges of 11-20 (15), 21-30 (15), 31-40 (15), 41-50 (15) and 51-60 (15) years.  The absolute peak latency of waves I, III & V and interpeak latency of wave’s I-III, III-V & I-V in various age groups are analyzed. The data collected from both ears showed that increase in age will cause an increase in peak latency and interpeak latency values of all waves. Significant changes in the BAEPs in our study support the possible role of age as contributory factors for normal variations.