An investigation of the Auditory P300 Event Related Potential across gender

Abstract

The P300 serves as a valuable tool in examining higher auditory functions such as auditory attention and discrimination. Exploration of the P300 could be of value in a multi-lingual South Africa where auditory processing evaluations still rely heavily on inappropriate linguistically dependent tests. The P300 could potentially provide an objective, non-linguistically dependent evaluation of auditory processing. The present study aimed to investigate the influences of gender on the Auditory P300 Event Related Potential (AERP) and to contribute to establishing a clinic-specific normative database. One hundred subjects (n=100) (50% male) with normal hearing and no history of psychiatric illness were evaluated using the “odd-ball” paradigm. The averages and ranges of the findings on latencies and amplitudes were reported. The average latency values for the P300 were calculated at 314.7ms with a standard deviation of 37.2 ms. The average amplitude values were calculated at 7.1 µV with a standard deviation of 6.1 µV. No significant gender effect was found. In conclusion further research is recommended to explore the clinical utility of the P300 in different age and gender groups, using different protocols.