BACKGROUND: Long Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials. AIM: to characterize the Long Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials (LLAEP) in individuals with HIV/AIDS in comparison to a control group. METHOD: the research sample was composed by 21 individuals with HIV/AIDS - research group (14 male and 7 female), with ages ranging from 31 to 48 years, and 21 healthy individuals - control group (5 male and 16 female), with ages ranging from 19 to 36 years. The latency and amplitude values of the P300 wave were analyzed; latency of N1 and P2 waves, and amplitude N1-P2. The electrodes were placed on the following positions: A1, A2, Cz and Fpz. RESULTS: the T-student test was used to analyze the results and the adopted significance level was of 5%. In the analyzes of P300 it was observed that the group with HIV/AIDS presented greater latency values (p-value = 0,010) and lower amplitude values (p-value = 0,021) when compared to the control group. The analysis of the N1-P2 complex revealed that the research group presented higher latency values for both, N1 wave (p-value = 0,035) and P2 wave, however for this last one, there was no significant statistical difference when compared to the control group. Concerning the amplitude analysis of the N1-P2 complex, it was verified that the control group presented significantly higher values when compared to the research group. CONCLUSION: the findings of this study indicates that individuals with HIV/AIDS present alterations in the Long Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials (higher latencies and lower amplitudes of N1, P2 and P300 waves), suggesting a disorder in the cortical regions of the auditory pathway, and therefore stressing the importance of such tests in the evaluation of these individuals.
HIV; Event-Related Potentials P300; Evoked Potentials; Auditory
