Brain stem auditory-evoked responses in premature infants.

Brain stem auditory-evoked responses were recorded in 24 infants ranging in age from six-weeks premature to term. At a given age, the latency of the response increased with decreasing stimulus intensity. Further, as age increased, there was a systematic decrease in latency of the response at each sound intensity level. The response was shown not to be fatigue or sleep stage. It may, therefore, be of use for evaluating auditory function in high-risk newborn infants.