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Auditory nerve-brain stem responses (ABR) in children with developmental brain disorders and in high risk neonates.

Auditory nerve-brain stem evoked responses (ABR) have been used for many years to evaluate auditory and neurological disorders. This study is devoted to the demonstration that ABRs can also contribute to the assessment of children with developmental brain disorders, e.g. psycho-motor retardation, minimal brain dysfunction, cerebral palsy and autism. The ABR in many of these children was abnormal, providing evidence for the presence of brain damage in these children which is probably responsible for the disorder they display. Since many of these children suffered from some congenital, perinatal or neonatal insult, ABR recording was also conducted in high risk neonates and young infants. Many of these neonates and infants had abnormal ABRs and, in several, there was improvement of the ABR upon repeated testing. These findings of abnormal ABRs in children with developmental brain disorders who suffered a perinatal insult and abnormal ABRs in neonates who suffered such an insult lead to the following hypothesis: a congenital-perinatal-neonatal insult can cause, at the time of its occurrence, some form of brain damage which may be demonstrated by abnormal ABRs. The same underlying brain damage may also cause developmental brain disorders which become apparent when he is older. Therefore ABR recording during the neonatal period may contribute to the early detection of brain dysfunction in at-risk neonates and may predict the later appearance of neurological, behavioural and cognitive dysfunctions. A longitudinal experimental protocol for the testing and evaluation of this hypothesis is presented.