Development of cortical auditory processing and its association with speech understanding from childhood to adulthood

The maturation of the auditory system is critical for the development of speech perception from childhood through early adulthood. However, the developmental trajectories and behavioral significance of cortical responses to speech sounds, particularly in relation to frequency specificity, remain poorly understood. Here, we presented low-frequency (/m/) and high-frequency (/s/) speech sounds to 70 typically developing individuals aged 5–24 years and recorded early cortical responses (P1 and N1) using electroencephalography.

We also examined associations between these neural responses and speech understanding in quiet and in the presence of speech interferers. The developmental trajectories of P1 and N1 revealed distinct age- and stimulus-dependent patterns, including both linear and non-linear changes across development. These findings delineate frequency-specific maturational profiles within the cortical auditory system and identify potential neurophysiological markers of speech perception, providing a normative benchmark for assessing atypical auditory development.

We thank all the participants and their families for their time and commitment to this study. This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health–National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIH–NIDCD) under grants R01 DC003083 (Litovsky) and R01 DC019511 (MPIs: Litovsky, Hartley, and Alexander). Additional support was provided by a core grant to the Waisman Center from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P50 HD105353).

Vijayalakshmi Easwar for her initial contribution to the EEG section of the original grant proposal for this study. We are grateful to Stephanie Sellner, Aditi Gargeshwari, Mohammad Maarefvand, Molly Osborn, Elizabeth Neubauer, Amanda Lackner, and other members of the Binaural Hearing & Speech Laboratory for their help with data collection and study coordination. Present address: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA Kumari Anshu, Nimesha D.

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