Developmental Changes in Presentation Rate Effect on Auditory Event-Related Potential through Childhood to Adulthood

In adults, the rate of stimuli presentation has been shown to play a critical role for the event related potentials (ERP): its components become larger as presentation rate decreases. But there are few works evaluating developmental changes of this ERP modulation that might provide insights into basic forms of learning. The current study aims to examine the developmental changes in the effect of the presentation rate on ERP. Participants (N = 48) of four age groups (2-7, 8-11, 12-17 and 18-35 years old) were presented with auditory tone (1000 Hz) at three different stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA): 0.9, 1.8, and 3.6 s. During stimuli presentation 28-channels electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded. Amplitude of ERP components increased with SOA prolongation. However, this effect was differently pronounced in each of the age groups, depending on the component and cortical site. N1P1 amplitude was increased from 0.9 to 1.8 s SOA in two oldest groups (12-17 years old and adults) predominantly at fronto-central sites. Similar increase demonstrated P2N1 component but starting from younger group (8-11 years old). Only the adult group was characterized by a significant increase in N1P1 and P2N1 amplitudes with SOA increase from 1.8 to 3.6 s. Thus, the effect of presentation rate on ERP is not fully mature even at adolescence and depends on the component with P2N1 amplitude showing modulations at younger age.