Comparison of middle latency auditory evoked potentials in learning disability and normal 7-12 year- old children

Learning disability(LD) is one of the most prevalent problems among elementary school children. Approximately 10 percent of all elementary school children suffer from this problem. It has been determined that learning disability is predominantly accompanied with subtle impairment in central auditory nervous system. The main idea of this study was to evaluate middle latency auditory evoked potential (MLAEPs) in learning disabled children. This cross-sectional study investigated middle latency auditory evoked potential in children with learning disability (n = 31) compared to normal children (n = 31). Latencies and amplitudes of MLAEPs results with different stimulus intensity and binaural stimulation were compared between two groups. Compared to control group, learning disabled children exhibited smaller amplitudes for all the components except the right ear Na and Pa. There is no significant difference between two groups for latencies of the components. It seems that middle latency auditory evoked potential may be useful in diagnosis and evaluation of learning disabled children although more investigation is required.