Postnatal development of the auditory evoked brainstem potentials in the guinea pig.

The postnatal development of lower stations in the auditory pathway was studied in the guinea pig by recording auditory brainstem potentials. At birth, the brainstem responses of young guinea pigs already have thresholds corresponding to those of adult animals. However, the latencies of the individual potentials are significantly longer than those in the control group. Within the 4 weeks of the study, the latency of each of the five potentials reached the adult value. Both the rate of latency normalization and the characteristic changes in potential amplitude indicate that maturation of the auditory pathway proceeds centripetally.