ACOUSTICALLY EVOKED RESPONSES IN PREMATURE AND FULL TERM NEWBORN INFANTS

Utilizing a computer of average transients, acoustic summated evoked responses were obtained from premature, full term, and hypoxic infants, during specific states of sleep, monitored polygraphically during natural sleep. Characteristic peaks were present in greater detail in the normal full term infants during Quiet Sleep as compared to the prematures and hypoxic infants, but diminished in amplitude during Active Sleep. The patterns of the peaks in the acoustic evoked response (AER) were a better indicator of conceptional age than the latencies. The variability of the AER was shown to be related to the background EEG. For this reason, monitoring the sleep states polygraphically to insure standardization of technique is necessary before meaningful results can be obtained. The AER is another technique for exploring the neurological integrity of the newly born infant. © 1969.