Article révisé par les pairs
Résumé : A study realised among 60 children by means of a probe tube microphone allowed us to determine the mean ear canal resonance by the newborn and the young children. This is noticeably less than the adult one. The ear canal reaches its adult physiology after one year, so it implies a somewhat different auditory sensibility by the newborns than by the adults, particularly in the 2000-4000 Hz range. We suggest that the A.B.R. wave I latency and thresholds modifications during children's first year of life are (at least partially and in the majority of cases) an ear canal physiological variation effect and that different calibrations should be used for newborns screening test and for adults purposes.