The influence of puberty on the maturation of the central auditory system

Late Auditory Event-Related Potentials (LAERs) are widely used to investigate central auditory responses to sounds. Components of the LAERs reflect successive stages of sound processing throughout the auditory pathway and are influenced by visual information. From infancy to old age, LAERs show morphological changes. Their maturation is thought to follow a stepwise trajectory, marked by distinct changes at the start and end of adolescence. Interestingly, the beginning of adolescence coincides with puberty onset, which triggers a cascade of hormonal changes that may lead to enhanced neural plasticity. Puberty could thus contribute to the maturation of sensory brain regions, including the central auditory cortex in the temporal brain region. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of puberty on the development of speech processing. Participants (n = 110, ranging from pre- to late-pubertal stages) were presented with speech stimuli in an oddball paradigm across three conditions: audio only, audiovisual congruent, and audiovisual incongruent. Preliminary findings suggest that puberty drives certain changes in LAER morphology throughout adolescence. Puberty may play a role in the functional maturation of the central auditory pathway, potentially contributing to the fine-tuning of adolescents’ ability to process speech in ecological settings.