A Sensitive Period for the Development of the Central Auditory System in Children with Cochlear Implants: Implications for Age of Implantation

In Brief Objective The aim of the present experiment was to assess the consequences of cochlear implantation at different ages on the development of the human central auditory system. Design Our measure of the maturity of central auditory pathways was the latency of the P1 cortical auditory evoked potential. Because P1 latencies vary as a function of chronological age, they can be used to infer the maturational status of auditory pathways in congenitally deafened children who regain hearing after being fit with a cochlear implant. We examined the development of P1 response latencies in 104 congenitally deaf children who had been fit with cochlear implants at ages ranging from 1.3 yr to 17.5 yr and three…