Auditory brainstem evoked responses in newborns with Down syndrome.
Newborn hearing tests already show faster brain-stem timing in Down syndrome, giving teams an early heads-up.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Doctors recorded brain-stem hearing tests in sleeping newborns.
They compared babies with Down syndrome to typical babies matched for birth age and weight.
Tiny earphones clicked; scalp electrodes caught the brain’s echo.
What they found
Babies with Down syndrome had faster Waves III and V.
The time from Wave I to III was also shorter.
These speed differences show the brain-stem pathway is already wired differently at birth.
How this fits with other research
Aznar et al. (2005) later showed the same babies grow into young adults who score higher on verbal than non-verbal tests.
Together the two papers trace one line: early brain-stem speed shift → later thinking profile.
Schaadt et al. (2015) found a mirror story in mixed-risk infants: slower cortical response at 5 months predicted writing trouble years later.
Both studies say the same thing in different directions: infant auditory timing foretells later skills.
Why it matters
You now have a 10-minute bedside test that flags brain difference before parents leave the hospital.
Share the newborn ABR report with early-intervention teams so they can watch hearing, language, and memory from day one.
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Add ABR results to the intake folder and set listening goals if latencies were short.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Auditory brainstem evoked responses (ABRs) were compared in 15 newborns with Down syndrome and 15 sex-, age-, and weight-matched control newborns. Participants had normal ABRs based upon values specific to 32- to 42-weeks postconceptional age. Although Wave III and Wave V component latencies and the Wave I-III interpeak latency (IPL) were shorter in ABRs of infants with Down syndrome, the Wave III-V IPL was not, pointing to anomalies in the lower rather than upper brainstem auditory pathways. Shorter Down syndrome ABR latencies have been reported at many ages. Extending these findings to newborns suggests that the underlying basis for this develops prenatally. ABR patterns in infants with Down syndrome were similar to reports for intrauterine growth restricted newborns.
American journal on intellectual and developmental disabilities, 2009 · doi:10.1352/1944-7558-114.6.393