Comparison of Auditory Evoked Potentials between Younger and Older Adults

Aging is a very important issue in our modern life. Auditory processing problems are common in older adults. There are different ways to study these problems.The aim of this cross sectional study was to evaluate the pure processing effect of aging on auditory evoked potentials. Materials and methods: The auditory brain stem response (ABR) and the auditory middle latency response (AMLR) weremeasuredin 32 younger adults (mean age, 20.41±2.13 years) and compared with those of 32 older adults (mean age, 68.16±6.20 years). Both groups had normal peripheral hearing sensitivity and normal cognitive status, according to pure tone audiometry and Mini Mental State Examination results.The group of older adults was selected from subjectswith problemsunderstanding speech in noisy places. Multivariate tests wereused for the statistical analysis. RESULTS: Most ABR wave latencies increased and their amplitudes decreased in older adults. (P< 0.05). The latency of AMLR waves was significantly prolonged only for the Nb componentin the right and left ears and for the Pa component during binaural stimulation (p < 0.05).Theamplitude of all AMLR waves increased significantly, except for Na in both ears (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Aging had a pure central effect on the processing ability of the entire neural auditory system.Aging reduced the central inhibition process at the cortical level.