Longitudinal high-density cortical auditory event-related potentials and speech-sound discrimination in the first two years of life in extremely and very preterm infants without developmental disorders

Karine Pelc, Aleksandra Gajewska, Natan Napiórkowski, Jonathan Dan, Caroline Verhoeven, Bernard Dan

Abstract: Highlights•Extremely and very preterm infants (born <32 weeks gestation) without developmental disorders undergo significant developmental changes in auditory processing over the first two years.•Early occurrence of the infant-P1 cortical auditory evoked potential component indicates very early cortical sound detection, unaffected by the extent of prematurity in extremely and very preterm infants.•The infant-N1 component, emerging around 6 months, likely reflects cortical sound content processing, with its source generators organizing along the auditory cortical dorsal stream and mirror neuron system over the first two years.•Auditory discrimination of speech sounds begins to significantly change around 6 months of age, well before infants achieve receptive or expressive speech abilities.