Electrophysiological auditory response to acoustically modified syllables in preterm and full-term infants

• The study provides EEG time–frequency measures of the habituation effect in term and preterm infants.
• The absence of the EEG measure of the habituation effect is an early predictor of language problems.
• Prolonged syllables facilitate syllable processing in at-risk infants.
• The study reveals alternatives for early detection and intervention for at-risk infants.

This study explored the effect of extending the duration of the syllable formant transition on auditory habituation in full-term and preterm infants at 12 months, as measured by decreases in amplitude for syllable repetition using EEG time–frequency analyses. EEG recordings for four repetitions of the syllable (/ta/) under two different conditions (non-modified and modified) were collected for one group of 13 full-term and two groups of preterm infants differing in language production performance; 15 infants had high scores (HS), and 14 had low scores (LS). Full-term and HS preterm infants showed significant decreases in amplitude for syllable repetition in both conditions. LS preterm infants showed a decrease only in the modified syllable condition, suggesting a facilitation effect of modified syllables in the LS preterm group.