Familiality of Auditory Evoked Potentials: Preliminary Investigation of the Auditory Brainstem Response and Late Latency Cortical Response

Twenty-four participants, consisting of six sibling pairs and six non-sibling pairs, participated in this study investigating the familiality of auditory evoked potentials (AEPs). The auditory brainstem response (ABR) recorded at high stimulus rates, revealed that Wave V latency increases, while amplitude decreases as stimulus rate increases. ABR Wave V latency was also found to increase with click position within a stimulus train, plateauing by the third stimulus. No evidence for familiality was found with respect to the ABR Wave V under these conditions. The late latency response (LLR) components N1 and P2 were found to decrease between the first and second stimulus within a stimulus train, with evidence of familiality found in the N1 decrement, as indicated by a higher correlation for siblings. Correlations between the ABR and LLR components were also investigated; for the first tone in a stimulus train, a significant correlation was found between the P2 amplitude and Wave V amplitude for the Sibling group.