Can children's atypical passive auditory ERPs be normalised by training?

The aim of this study was to test - for the first time - if nonspeech or simple-speech training normalises atypical passive auditory ERPs in the N1-Ps window in children with SLI and SRD. At Time 1, we tested children with SRD or SLI and age-matched controls for their behavioural responses and passive ERP responses to tones, backward-marked tones, vowels, and consonant-vowels. Twenty-five children with SRD and SLI, who had a poor behavioural response to one of these sounds, were trained to discriminate the same sound for half an hour a day, 4 days a week, for 6 weeks. After training (Time 2), we retested these 25 trainees and 33 untrained controls for their behavioural and passive ERP responses to the same found sounds. The training successfully treated the behavioural responses of 19 of the 24 trainees. However, it did not normalise atypical N1-P2 ERPs in successful or unsuccessful trainees. Nor did it shift typical N1-Ps ERPs in successful or unsuccessful trainees. This suggests that non-speech and simple-speech training modifies the brain at a "higher" level of processing than automatic auditory perception.