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Rizzi R, Bidelman GM. Functional benefits of continuous vs. categorical listening strategies on the neural encoding and perception of noise-degraded speech. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2024:2024.05.15.594387. [PMID: 38798410 PMCID: PMC11118460 DOI: 10.1101/2024.05.15.594387] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/29/2024]
Abstract
Acoustic information in speech changes continuously, yet listeners form discrete perceptual categories to ease the demands of perception. Being a more continuous/gradient as opposed to a discrete/categorical listener may be further advantageous for understanding speech in noise by increasing perceptual flexibility and resolving ambiguity. The degree to which a listener's responses to a continuum of speech sounds are categorical versus continuous can be quantified using visual analog scaling (VAS) during speech labeling tasks. Here, we recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to vowels along an acoustic-phonetic continuum (/u/ to /a/) while listeners categorized phonemes in both clean and noise conditions. Behavior was assessed using standard two alternative forced choice (2AFC) and VAS paradigms to evaluate categorization under task structures that promote discrete (2AFC) vs. continuous (VAS) hearing, respectively. Behaviorally, identification curves were steeper under 2AFC vs. VAS categorization but were relatively immune to noise, suggesting robust access to abstract, phonetic categories even under signal degradation. Behavioral slopes were positively correlated with listeners' QuickSIN scores, suggesting a behavioral advantage for speech in noise comprehension conferred by gradient listening strategy. At the neural level, electrode level data revealed P2 peak amplitudes of the ERPs were modulated by task and noise; responses were larger under VAS vs. 2AFC categorization and showed larger noise-related delay in latency in the VAS vs. 2AFC condition. More gradient responders also had smaller shifts in ERP latency with noise, suggesting their neural encoding of speech was more resilient to noise degradation. Interestingly, source-resolved ERPs showed that more gradient listening was also correlated with stronger neural responses in left superior temporal gyrus. Our results demonstrate that listening strategy (i.e., being a discrete vs. continuous listener) modulates the categorical organization of speech and behavioral success, with continuous/gradient listening being more advantageous to speech in noise perception.
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Ershaid H, Lizarazu M, McLaughlin D, Cooke M, Simantiraki O, Koutsogiannaki M, Lallier M. Contributions of listening effort and intelligibility to cortical tracking of speech in adverse listening conditions. Cortex 2024; 172:54-71. [PMID: 38215511 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.11.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/10/2023] [Revised: 09/05/2023] [Accepted: 11/14/2023] [Indexed: 01/14/2024]
Abstract
Cortical tracking of speech is vital for speech segmentation and is linked to speech intelligibility. However, there is no clear consensus as to whether reduced intelligibility leads to a decrease or an increase in cortical speech tracking, warranting further investigation of the factors influencing this relationship. One such factor is listening effort, defined as the cognitive resources necessary for speech comprehension, and reported to have a strong negative correlation with speech intelligibility. Yet, no studies have examined the relationship between speech intelligibility, listening effort, and cortical tracking of speech. The aim of the present study was thus to examine these factors in quiet and distinct adverse listening conditions. Forty-nine normal hearing adults listened to sentences produced casually, presented in quiet and two adverse listening conditions: cafeteria noise and reverberant speech. Electrophysiological responses were registered with electroencephalogram, and listening effort was estimated subjectively using self-reported scores and objectively using pupillometry. Results indicated varying impacts of adverse conditions on intelligibility, listening effort, and cortical tracking of speech, depending on the preservation of the speech temporal envelope. The more distorted envelope in the reverberant condition led to higher listening effort, as reflected in higher subjective scores, increased pupil diameter, and stronger cortical tracking of speech in the delta band. These findings suggest that using measures of listening effort in addition to those of intelligibility is useful for interpreting cortical tracking of speech results. Moreover, reading and phonological skills of participants were positively correlated with listening effort in the cafeteria condition, suggesting a special role of expert language skills in processing speech in this noisy condition. Implications for future research and theories linking atypical cortical tracking of speech and reading disorders are further discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hadeel Ershaid
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain.
| | - Mikel Lizarazu
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain.
| | - Drew McLaughlin
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain.
| | - Martin Cooke
- Ikerbasque, Basque Science Foundation, Bilbao, Spain.
| | | | | | - Marie Lallier
- Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain; Ikerbasque, Basque Science Foundation, Bilbao, Spain.
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Lasnick OHM, Hoeft F. Sensory temporal sampling in time: an integrated model of the TSF and neural noise hypothesis as an etiological pathway for dyslexia. Front Hum Neurosci 2024; 17:1294941. [PMID: 38234592 PMCID: PMC10792016 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1294941] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/15/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Much progress has been made in research on the causal mechanisms of developmental dyslexia. In recent years, the "temporal sampling" account of dyslexia has evolved considerably, with contributions from neurogenetics and novel imaging methods resulting in a much more complex etiological view of the disorder. The original temporal sampling framework implicates disrupted neural entrainment to speech as a causal factor for atypical phonological representations. Yet, empirical findings have not provided clear evidence of a low-level etiology for this endophenotype. In contrast, the neural noise hypothesis presents a theoretical view of the manifestation of dyslexia from the level of genes to behavior. However, its relative novelty (published in 2017) means that empirical research focused on specific predictions is sparse. The current paper reviews dyslexia research using a dual framework from the temporal sampling and neural noise hypotheses and discusses the complementary nature of these two views of dyslexia. We present an argument for an integrated model of sensory temporal sampling as an etiological pathway for dyslexia. Finally, we conclude with a brief discussion of outstanding questions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oliver H. M. Lasnick
- brainLENS Laboratory, Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States
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Gijbels L, Lee AKC, Yeatman JD. Children with developmental dyslexia have equivalent audiovisual speech perception performance but their perceptual weights differ. Dev Sci 2024; 27:e13431. [PMID: 37403418 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13431] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/13/2023] [Revised: 05/18/2023] [Accepted: 06/19/2023] [Indexed: 07/06/2023]
Abstract
As reading is inherently a multisensory, audiovisual (AV) process where visual symbols (i.e., letters) are connected to speech sounds, the question has been raised whether individuals with reading difficulties, like children with developmental dyslexia (DD), have broader impairments in multisensory processing. This question has been posed before, yet it remains unanswered due to (a) the complexity and contentious etiology of DD along with (b) lack of consensus on developmentally appropriate AV processing tasks. We created an ecologically valid task for measuring multisensory AV processing by leveraging the natural phenomenon that speech perception improves when listeners are provided visual information from mouth movements (particularly when the auditory signal is degraded). We designed this AV processing task with low cognitive and linguistic demands such that children with and without DD would have equal unimodal (auditory and visual) performance. We then collected data in a group of 135 children (age 6.5-15) with an AV speech perception task to answer the following questions: (1) How do AV speech perception benefits manifest in children, with and without DD? (2) Do children all use the same perceptual weights to create AV speech perception benefits, and (3) what is the role of phonological processing in AV speech perception? We show that children with and without DD have equal AV speech perception benefits on this task, but that children with DD rely less on auditory processing in more difficult listening situations to create these benefits and weigh both incoming information streams differently. Lastly, any reported differences in speech perception in children with DD might be better explained by differences in phonological processing than differences in reading skills. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Children with versus without developmental dyslexia have equal audiovisual speech perception benefits, regardless of their phonological awareness or reading skills. Children with developmental dyslexia rely less on auditory performance to create audiovisual speech perception benefits. Individual differences in speech perception in children might be better explained by differences in phonological processing than differences in reading skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liesbeth Gijbels
- Department of Speech & Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
- University of Washington, Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Adrian K C Lee
- Department of Speech & Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
- University of Washington, Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Jason D Yeatman
- Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA
- Stanford University Graduate School of Education, Stanford, California, USA
- Stanford University Department of Psychology, Stanford, California, USA
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Andrade PE, Müllensiefen D, Andrade OVCA, Dunstan J, Zuk J, Gaab N. Sequence Processing in Music Predicts Reading Skills in Young Readers: A Longitudinal Study. JOURNAL OF LEARNING DISABILITIES 2024; 57:43-60. [PMID: 36935627 DOI: 10.1177/00222194231157722] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Musical abilities, both in the pitch and temporal dimension, have been shown to be positively associated with phonological awareness and reading abilities in both children and adults. There is increasing evidence that the relationship between music and language relies primarily on the temporal dimension, including both meter and rhythm. It remains unclear to what extent skill level in these temporal aspects of music may uniquely contribute to the prediction of reading outcomes. A longitudinal design was used to test a group-administered musical sequence transcription task (MSTT). This task was designed to preferentially engage sequence processing skills while controlling for fine-grained pitch discrimination and rhythm in terms of temporal grouping. Forty-five children, native speakers of Portuguese (Mage = 7.4 years), completed the MSTT and a cognitive-linguistic protocol that included visual and auditory working memory tasks, as well as phonological awareness and reading tasks in second grade. Participants then completed reading assessments in third and fifth grades. Longitudinal regression models showed that MSTT and phonological awareness had comparable power to predict reading. The MSTT showed an overall classification accuracy for identifying low-achievement readers in Grades 2, 3, and 5 that was analogous to a comprehensive model including core predictors of reading disability. In addition, MSTT was the variable with the highest loading and the most discriminatory indicator of a phonological factor. These findings carry implications for the role of temporal sequence processing in contributing to the relationship between music and language and the potential use of MSTT as a language-independent, time- and cost-effective tool for the early identification of children at risk of reading disability.
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Guerra G, Tijms J, Tierney A, Vaessen A, Dick F, Bonte M. Auditory attention influences trajectories of symbol-speech sound learning in children with and without dyslexia. J Exp Child Psychol 2024; 237:105761. [PMID: 37666181 DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2023.105761] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/01/2023] [Revised: 07/25/2023] [Accepted: 07/27/2023] [Indexed: 09/06/2023]
Abstract
The acquisition of letter-speech sound correspondences is a fundamental process underlying reading development, one that could be influenced by several linguistic and domain-general cognitive factors. In the current study, we mimicked the first steps of this process by examining behavioral trajectories of audiovisual associative learning in 110 7- to 12-year-old children with and without dyslexia. Children were asked to learn the associations between eight novel symbols and native speech sounds in a brief training and subsequently read words and pseudowords written in the artificial orthography. We then investigated the influence of auditory attention as one of the putative domain-general factors influencing associative learning. To this aim, we assessed children with experimental measures of auditory sustained selective attention and interference control. Our results showed shallower learning trajectories in children with dyslexia, especially during the later phases of the training blocks. Despite this, children with dyslexia performed similarly to typical readers on the post-training reading tests using the artificial orthography. Better auditory sustained selective attention and interference control skills predicted greater response accuracy during training. Sustained selective attention was also associated with the ability to apply these novel correspondences in the reading tests. Although this result has the limitations of a correlational design, it denotes that poor attentional skills may constitute a risk during the early stages of reading acquisition, when children start to learn letter-speech sound associations. Importantly, our findings underscore the importance of examining dynamics of learning in reading acquisition as well as individual differences in more domain-general attentional factors.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giada Guerra
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK; Maastricht Brain Imaging Center and Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands.
| | - Jurgen Tijms
- RID Institute, Nieuwe Achtergracht 129, 1018 WS Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Rudolf Berlin Center, Department of Psychology, University of Amsterdam, 1018 WT Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Adam Tierney
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK
| | - Anniek Vaessen
- RID Institute, Nieuwe Achtergracht 129, 1018 WS Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Frederic Dick
- Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, University of London, London WC1E 7HX, UK; Department of Experimental Psychology, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London WC1H 0AP, UK
| | - Milene Bonte
- Maastricht Brain Imaging Center and Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands
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Lasnick OHM, Hancock R, Hoeft F. Left-dominance for resting-state temporal low-gamma power in children with impaired word-decoding and without comorbid ADHD. PLoS One 2023; 18:e0292330. [PMID: 38157354 PMCID: PMC10756518 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292330] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2023] [Accepted: 12/08/2023] [Indexed: 01/03/2024] Open
Abstract
One theory of the origins of reading disorders (i.e., dyslexia) is a language network which cannot effectively 'entrain' to speech, with cascading effects on the development of phonological skills. Low-gamma (low-γ, 30-45 Hz) neural activity, particularly in the left hemisphere, is thought to correspond to tracking at phonemic rates in speech. The main goals of the current study were to investigate temporal low-γ band-power during rest in a sample of children and adolescents with and without reading disorder (RD). Using a Bayesian statistical approach to analyze the power spectral density of EEG data, we examined whether (1) resting-state temporal low-γ power was attenuated in the left temporal region in RD; (2) low-γ power covaried with individual reading performance; (3) low-γ temporal lateralization was atypical in RD. Contrary to our expectations, results did not support the hypothesized effects of RD status and poor decoding ability on left hemisphere low-γ power or lateralization: post-hoc tests revealed that the lack of atypicality in the RD group was not due to the inclusion of those with comorbid attentional deficits. However, post-hoc tests also revealed a specific left-dominance for low-γ rhythms in children with reading deficits only, when participants with comorbid attentional deficits were excluded. We also observed an inverse relationship between decoding and left-lateralization in the controls, such that those with better decoding skills were less likely to show left-lateralization. We discuss these unexpected findings in the context of prior theoretical frameworks on temporal sampling. These results may reflect the importance of real-time language processing to evoke gamma rhythms in the phonemic range during childhood and adolescence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Oliver H. M. Lasnick
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, United States of America
| | - Roeland Hancock
- Wu Tsai Institute, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America
| | - Fumiko Hoeft
- Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, United States of America
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8
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Gósy M, Bunta F, Pregitzer M. Speech processing performance of Hungarian-speaking twins and singletons. CLINICAL LINGUISTICS & PHONETICS 2023; 37:979-995. [PMID: 36052433 DOI: 10.1080/02699206.2022.2111274] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2020] [Revised: 05/30/2022] [Accepted: 08/01/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Studying speech processing in twins versus their singleton peers provides opportunities to study both genetic and environmental effects on how children acquire these aspects of their speech and - by extension - their phonological systems. Our study focused on speech processing in typically developing Hungarian-speaking twins and their singleton peers between 5 and 9 years of age. Participants included 384 monolingual Hungarian-speaking children (192 twins, and 192 singletons). Data from four tasks - repetition of synthesised monosyllables, nonsense words, well-formed noisy sentences, and well-formed phonologically complex sentences - were analysed. There was a main effect for birth status, and singletons outperformed their twin peers on the majority of the speech processing tasks. Age and task also had effects on the performance of the participants, and there was a three-way task by age by twin versus singleton status indicating that the speech processing performance of twins versus singletons is interdependent with the type of task and age. Our results also indicate that monolingual Hungarian-speaking twins may be at higher risk for developmental speech delays relative to their singleton peers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mária Gósy
- Department of Phonetics, Linguistics Institute ELKH and ELTE University, Budapest, Hungary
| | - Ferenc Bunta
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA
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9
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Porto L, Wouters J, van Wieringen A. Speech perception in noise, working memory, and attention in children: A scoping review. Hear Res 2023; 439:108883. [PMID: 37722287 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2023.108883] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Revised: 08/28/2023] [Accepted: 09/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/20/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Speech perception in noise is an everyday occurrence for adults and children alike. The factors that influence how well individuals cope with noise during spoken communication are not well understood, particularly in the case of children. This article aims to review the available evidence on how working memory and attention play a role in children's speech perception in noise, how characteristics of measures affect results, and how this relationship differs in non-typical populations. METHOD This article is a scoping review of the literature available on PubMed. Forty articles were included for meeting the inclusion criteria of including children as participants, some measure of speech perception in noise, some measure of attention and/or working memory, and some attempt to establish relationships between the measures. Findings were charted and presented keeping in mind how they relate to the research questions. RESULTS The majority of studies report that attention and especially working memory are involved in speech perception in noise by children. We provide an overview of the impact of certain task characteristics on findings across the literature, as well as how these affect non-typical populations. CONCLUSION While most of the work reviewed here provides evidence suggesting that working memory and attention are important abilities employed by children in overcoming the difficulties imposed by noise during spoken communication, methodological variability still prevents a clearer picture from emerging.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lyan Porto
- Department of Neurosciences, University of Leuven, Research group Experimental Oto-Rino-Laryngologie. O&N II, Herestraat 49, Leuven 3000, Belgium.
| | - Jan Wouters
- Department of Neurosciences, University of Leuven, Research group Experimental Oto-Rino-Laryngologie. O&N II, Herestraat 49, Leuven 3000, Belgium
| | - Astrid van Wieringen
- Department of Neurosciences, University of Leuven, Research group Experimental Oto-Rino-Laryngologie. O&N II, Herestraat 49, Leuven 3000, Belgium; Department of Special Needs Education, University of Oslo, Norway
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10
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Couvignou M, Tillmann B, Caclin A, Kolinsky R. Do developmental dyslexia and congenital amusia share underlying impairments? Child Neuropsychol 2023; 29:1294-1340. [PMID: 36606656 DOI: 10.1080/09297049.2022.2162031] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/04/2022] [Accepted: 12/19/2022] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia and congenital amusia have common characteristics. Yet, their possible association in some individuals has been addressed only scarcely. Recently, two converging studies reported a sizable comorbidity rate between these two neurodevelopmental disorders (Couvignou et al., Cognitive Neuropsychology 2019; Couvignou & Kolinsky, Neuropsychologia 2021). However, the reason for their association remains unclear. Here, we investigate the hypothesis of shared underlying impairments between dyslexia and amusia. Fifteen dyslexic children with amusia (DYS+A), 15 dyslexic children without amusia (DYS-A), and two groups of 25 typically developing children matched on either chronological age (CA) or reading level (RL) were assessed with a behavioral battery aiming to investigate phonological and pitch processing capacities at auditory memory, perceptual awareness, and attentional levels. Overall, our results suggest that poor auditory serial-order memory increases susceptibility to comorbidity between dyslexia and amusia and may play a role in the development of the comorbid phenotype. In contrast, the impairments observed in the DYS+A children for auditory item memory, perceptual awareness, and attention might be a consequence of their reduced reading experience combined with weaker musical skills. Comparing DYS+A and DYS-A children suggests that the latter are more resourceful and/or have more effective compensatory strategies, or that their phenotype results from a different developmental trajectory. We will discuss the relevance of these findings for delving into the etiology of these two developmental disorders and address their implications for future research and practice.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manon Couvignou
- Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (Unescog), Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, Lyon, France
- University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Anne Caclin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, CNRS, UMR 5292, INSERM, U1028, Lyon, France
- University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Régine Kolinsky
- Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (Unescog), Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
- Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique-FNRS (FRS-FNRS), Brussels, Belgium
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11
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Ozernov-Palchik O, Qi Z, Beach SD, Gabrieli JDE. Intact procedural memory and impaired auditory statistical learning in adults with dyslexia. Neuropsychologia 2023; 188:108638. [PMID: 37516235 PMCID: PMC10805067 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108638] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2022] [Revised: 05/08/2023] [Accepted: 07/03/2023] [Indexed: 07/31/2023]
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia is a reading disorder that is associated with atypical brain function. One neuropsychological theory posits that dyslexia reflects a deficit in the procedural memory system, which supports implicit learning, or the acquisition of knowledge without conscious awareness or intention. This study investigated various forms of procedural learning in adults with dyslexia and typically-reading adults. Adults with dyslexia exhibited typical skill learning on mirror tracing and rotary pursuit tasks that have been well-established as reflecting purely procedural memory and dependent on basal ganglia and cerebellar structures. They also exhibited typical statistical learning for visual material, but impaired statistical learning for auditory material. Auditory statistical learning proficiency correlated positively with single-word reading performance across all participants and within the group with dyslexia, linking a major difficulty in dyslexia with impaired auditory statistical learning. These findings dissociate multiple forms of procedural memory that are intact in dyslexia from a specific impairment in auditory statistical learning that is associated with reading difficulty.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ola Ozernov-Palchik
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
| | - Zhenghan Qi
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Sara D Beach
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
| | - John D E Gabrieli
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
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12
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Cainelli E, Vedovelli L, Carretti B, Bisiacchi P. EEG correlates of developmental dyslexia: a systematic review. ANNALS OF DYSLEXIA 2023; 73:184-213. [PMID: 36417146 DOI: 10.1007/s11881-022-00273-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2021] [Accepted: 10/25/2022] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
Dyslexia is one of the most studied learning disorders. Despite this, its biological basis and main causes are still not fully understood. Electroencephalography (EEG) could be a powerful tool in identifying the underlying mechanisms, but knowledge of the EEG correlates of developmental dyslexia (DD) remains elusive. We aimed to systematically review the evidence on EEG correlates of DD and establish their quality. In July 2021, we carried out an online search of the PubMed and Scopus databases to identify published articles on EEG correlates in children with dyslexia aged 6 to 12 years without comorbidities. We follow the PRISMA guidelines and assess the quality using the Appraisal Tool questionnaire. Our final analysis included 49 studies (14% high quality, 63% medium, 20% low, and 2% very low). Studies differed greatly in methodology, making a summary of their results challenging. However, some points came to light. Even at rest, children with dyslexia and children in the control group exhibited differences in several EEG measures, particularly in theta and alpha frequencies; these frequencies appear to be associated with learning performance. During reading-related tasks, the differences between dyslexic and control children seem more localized in the left temporoparietal sites. The EEG activity of children with dyslexia and children in the control group differed in many aspects, both at rest and during reading-related tasks. Our data are compatible with neuroimaging studies in the same diagnostic group and expand the literature by offering new insights into functional significance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elisa Cainelli
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia, 8, 35133, Padua, Italy.
| | - Luca Vedovelli
- Unit of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Public Health, Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences, and Public Health, University of Padova, Padua, Italy
| | - Barbara Carretti
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia, 8, 35133, Padua, Italy
| | - Patrizia Bisiacchi
- Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Via Venezia, 8, 35133, Padua, Italy
- Padova Neuroscience Centre, PNC, Padua, Italy
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Lefèvre E, Cavalli E, Colé P, Law JM, Sprenger-Charolles L. Tracking reading skills and reading-related skills in dyslexia before (age 5) and after (ages 10-17) diagnosis. ANNALS OF DYSLEXIA 2023; 73:260-287. [PMID: 36626093 DOI: 10.1007/s11881-022-00277-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2022] [Accepted: 12/22/2022] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
This study had three goals: to examine the stability of deficits in the phonological and lexical routes in dyslexia (group study), to determine the prevalence of dyslexia profiles (multiple-case study), and to identify the prediction of phonemic segmentation and discrimination skills before reading acquisition on future reading level. Among a group of 373 non-readers seen at age 5, 38 students were subsequently diagnosed as either consistent dyslexic readers (18 DYS) or consistent typical readers (20 TR). Their phonological and lexical reading skills were assessed at ages 10 and 17 and their phonemic segmentation and discrimination skills at age 5. In comparison with TR of the same chronological age (CA-TR), individuals with dyslexia demonstrated an impairment of the two reading routes, especially of the phonological reading route. In the comparison with younger TR (age 10) of the same reading level (RL-TR), only a deficit of the phonological route is observed. In the multiple-case study, the comparisons with CA-TR showed a prevalence of mixed profiles and very few dissociated profiles, whereas the comparison with RL-TR resulted mostly in two profiles depending on the measure: a phonological profile when accuracy was used and a delayed profile when speed was used. In addition, the correlations between early phonemic segmentation and discrimination skills (age 5) and later reading skills (age 17) were significant, and in the group of individuals with dyslexia, early phonemic segmentation skills significantly predicted these later reading skills. Phonological reading deficits are persistent and mainly caused by early phonemic impairments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elise Lefèvre
- Laboratoire d'Etude Des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA3082), Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon, France.
| | - Eddy Cavalli
- Laboratoire d'Etude Des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA3082), Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon, France.
| | - Pascale Colé
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (UMR7290), CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
| | - Jeremy M Law
- School of Interdisciplinary Studies, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, GB, Scotland
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14
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Turri C, Di Dona G, Santoni A, Zamfira DA, Franchin L, Melcher D, Ronconi L. Periodic and Aperiodic EEG Features as Potential Markers of Developmental Dyslexia. Biomedicines 2023; 11:1607. [PMID: 37371702 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines11061607] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2023] [Revised: 05/26/2023] [Accepted: 05/26/2023] [Indexed: 06/29/2023] Open
Abstract
Developmental Dyslexia (DD) is a neurobiological condition affecting the ability to read fluently and/or accurately. Analyzing resting-state electroencephalographic (EEG) activity in DD may provide a deeper characterization of the underlying pathophysiology and possible biomarkers. So far, studies investigating resting-state activity in DD provided limited evidence and did not consider the aperiodic component of the power spectrum. In the present study, adults with (n = 26) and without DD (n = 31) underwent a reading skills assessment and resting-state EEG to investigate potential alterations in aperiodic activity, their impact on the periodic counterpart and reading performance. In parieto-occipital channels, DD participants showed a significantly different aperiodic activity as indexed by a flatter and lower power spectrum. These aperiodic measures were significantly related to text reading time, suggesting a link with individual differences in reading difficulties. In the beta band, the DD group showed significantly decreased aperiodic-adjusted power compared to typical readers, which was significantly correlated to word reading accuracy. Overall, here we provide evidence showing alterations of the endogenous aperiodic activity in DD participants consistently with the increased neural noise hypothesis. In addition, we confirm alterations of endogenous beta rhythms, which are discussed in terms of their potential link with magnocellular-dorsal stream deficit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chiara Turri
- School of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
- Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Giuseppe Di Dona
- School of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
- Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Alessia Santoni
- School of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
| | - Denisa Adina Zamfira
- School of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
- Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
| | - Laura Franchin
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
| | - David Melcher
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Italy
- Psychology Program, Division of Science, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi 129188, United Arab Emirates
- Center for Brain and Health, NYUAD Research Institute, New York University Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi 129188, United Arab Emirates
| | - Luca Ronconi
- School of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy
- Division of Neuroscience, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, 20132 Milan, Italy
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15
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Qi T, Mandelli ML, Pereira CLW, Wellman E, Bogley R, Licata AE, Chang EF, Oganian Y, Gorno-Tempini ML. Anatomical and behavioral correlates of auditory perception in developmental dyslexia. BIORXIV : THE PREPRINT SERVER FOR BIOLOGY 2023:2023.05.09.539936. [PMID: 37214875 PMCID: PMC10197694 DOI: 10.1101/2023.05.09.539936] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia (DD) is typically associated with difficulties in manipulating speech sounds and, sometimes, in basic auditory processing. However, the neuroanatomical correlates of auditory difficulties in DD and their contribution to individual clinical phenotypes are still unknown. Recent intracranial electrocorticography (ECoG) findings associated processing of sound amplitude rises and speech sounds with posterior and middle superior temporal gyrus (STG), respectively. We hypothesize that regional STG anatomy will relate to specific auditory abilities in DD and that auditory processing abilities will relate to behavioral difficulties. One hundred and ten children (78 DD, 32 typically developing, age 7-15 years) completed amplitude rise time (ART) and speech in noise discrimination (SiN) tasks. They also underwent a battery of cognitive tests. Anatomical MRI scans were used to identify regions in which local cortical gyrification complexity correlated with auditory tasks in DD. Behaviorally, ART but not SiN performance was impaired in DD. Neurally, ART and SiN performance correlated with gyrification in posterior STG and middle STG, respectively. Furthermore, ART significantly contributed to reading impairments in DD, while SiN explained variance in phonological awareness only. Finally, ART and SiN performance was not correlated, and each task was correlated with distinct neuropsychological measures, such that distinct DD subgroups could be identified. Overall, we provide a direct link between the neurodevelopment of the left STG and individual variability in auditory processing abilities in DD. The dissociation between speech and non-speech deficits supports distinct DD phenotypes and implicates different approaches to interventions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ting Qi
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, United States
- UCSF Dyslexia Center, University of California San Francisco, United States
| | - Maria Luisa Mandelli
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, United States
- UCSF Dyslexia Center, University of California San Francisco, United States
| | - Christa L. Watson Pereira
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, United States
- UCSF Dyslexia Center, University of California San Francisco, United States
| | - Emma Wellman
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, United States
- UCSF Dyslexia Center, University of California San Francisco, United States
| | - Rian Bogley
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, United States
- UCSF Dyslexia Center, University of California San Francisco, United States
| | - Abigail E. Licata
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, United States
- UCSF Dyslexia Center, University of California San Francisco, United States
| | - Edward F. Chang
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco, United States
| | - Yulia Oganian
- Department of Neurological Surgery, University of California San Francisco, United States
- Center for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini
- Department of Neurology, University of California San Francisco, United States
- UCSF Dyslexia Center, University of California San Francisco, United States
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16
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Rahimi V, Mohammadkhani G, Alaghband Rad J, Mousavi SZ, Khalili ME. Modulation of auditory temporal processing, speech in noise perception, auditory-verbal memory, and reading efficiency by anodal tDCS in children with dyslexia. Neuropsychologia 2022; 177:108427. [PMID: 36410540 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2022] [Revised: 10/30/2022] [Accepted: 11/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is prevalent in children. It is estimated that 30-50% of individuals diagnosed with dyslexia also manifest an auditory perceptual deficit characteristic of auditory processing disorder (APD). Some studies suggest that defects in basic auditory processing can lead to phonological defects as the most prominent cause of dyslexia. Thus, in some cases, there may be interrelationships between dyslexia and some of the aspects of central auditory processing. In recent years, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been used as a safe method for the modulation of central auditory processing aspects in healthy adults and reading skills in children with dyslexia. Therefore, the objectives of our study were to investigate the effect of tDCS on the modulation of different aspects of central auditory processing, aspects of reading, and the relationship between these two domains in dyslexic children with APD. A within-subjects design was employed to investigate the effect of two electrode arrays (the anode on the left STG (AC)/cathode on the right shoulder and anode on the left STG/cathode on the right STG) on auditory temporal processing; speech-in-noise perception, short-term auditory memory; and high-frequency word, low-frequency word, pseudoword, and text reading. The results of this clinical trial showed the modulation of the studied variables in central auditory processing and the accuracy and speed of reading variables compared to the control and sham statuses in both electrode arrays. Our results also showed that the improvement of the accuracy and speed of text reading, as well as the accuracy of pseudoword reading were related to the improvement of speech in noise perception and temporal processing. The results of this research can be effective in clarifying the basis of the neurobiology of dyslexia and, in particular, the hypothesis of the role of basic auditory processing and subsequently the role of the auditory cortex in dyslexia. These results might provide a framework to facilitate behavioral rehabilitation in dyslexic children with APD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vida Rahimi
- Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
| | - Ghassem Mohammadkhani
- Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran.
| | - Javad Alaghband Rad
- Department of Psychiatry, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Roozbeh Hospital, Tehran, Iran
| | - Seyyedeh Zohre Mousavi
- Department of Speech Therapy, School of Rehabilitation, Iran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
| | - Mohammad Ehsan Khalili
- Department of Audiology, School of Rehabilitation, Tehran University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
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17
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Vanden Bempt F, Van Herck S, Economou M, Vanderauwera J, Vandermosten M, Wouters J, Ghesquière P. Speech perception deficits and the effect of envelope-enhanced story listening combined with phonics intervention in pre-readers at risk for dyslexia. Front Psychol 2022; 13:1021767. [PMID: 36389538 PMCID: PMC9650384 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1021767] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/17/2022] [Accepted: 10/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia is considered to be most effectively addressed with preventive phonics-based interventions, including grapheme-phoneme coupling and blending exercises. These intervention types require intact speech perception abilities, given their large focus on exercises with auditorily presented phonemes. Yet some children with (a risk for) dyslexia experience problems in this domain due to a poorer sensitivity to rise times, i.e., rhythmic acoustic cues present in the speech envelope. As a result, the often subtle speech perception problems could potentially constrain an optimal response to phonics-based interventions in at-risk children. The current study therefore aimed (1) to extend existing research by examining the presence of potential speech perception deficits in pre-readers at cognitive risk for dyslexia when compared to typically developing peers and (2) to explore the added value of a preventive auditory intervention for at-risk pre-readers, targeting rise time sensitivity, on speech perception and other reading-related skills. To obtain the first research objective, we longitudinally compared speech-in-noise perception between 28 5-year-old pre-readers with and 30 peers without a cognitive risk for dyslexia during the second half of the third year of kindergarten. The second research objective was addressed by exploring growth in speech perception and other reading-related skills in an independent sample of 62 at-risk 5-year-old pre-readers who all combined a 12-week preventive phonics-based intervention (GraphoGame-Flemish) with an auditory story listening intervention. In half of the sample, story recordings contained artificially enhanced rise times (GG-FL_EE group, n = 31), while in the other half, stories remained unprocessed (GG-FL_NE group, n = 31; Clinical Trial Number S60962—https://www.uzleuven.be/nl/clinical-trial-center). Results revealed a slower speech-in-noise perception growth in the at-risk compared to the non-at-risk group, due to an emerged deficit at the end of kindergarten. Concerning the auditory intervention effects, both intervention groups showed equal growth in speech-in-noise perception and other reading-related skills, suggesting no boost of envelope-enhanced story listening on top of the effect of combining GraphoGame-Flemish with listening to unprocessed stories. These findings thus provide evidence for a link between speech perception problems and dyslexia, yet do not support the potential of the auditory intervention in its current form.
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Affiliation(s)
- Femke Vanden Bempt
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- *Correspondence: Femke Vanden Bempt,
| | - Shauni Van Herck
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Maria Economou
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jolijn Vanderauwera
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Maaike Vandermosten
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jan Wouters
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Pol Ghesquière
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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18
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Tan Y, Chanoine V, Cavalli E, Anton JL, Ziegler JC. Is there evidence for a noisy computation deficit in developmental dyslexia? Front Hum Neurosci 2022; 16:919465. [PMID: 36248689 PMCID: PMC9561132 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2022.919465] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
The noisy computation hypothesis of developmental dyslexia (DD) is particularly appealing because it can explain deficits across a variety of domains, such as temporal, auditory, phonological, visual and attentional processes. A key prediction is that noisy computations lead to more variable and less stable word representations. A way to test this hypothesis is through repetition of words, that is, when there is noise in the system, the neural signature of repeated stimuli should be more variable. The hypothesis was tested in an functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment with dyslexic and typical readers by repeating words twelve times. Variability measures were computed both at the behavioral and neural levels. At the behavioral level, we compared the standard deviation of reaction time distributions of repeated words. At the neural level, in addition to standard univariate analyses and measures of intra-item variability, we also used multivariate pattern analyses (representational similarity and classification) to find out whether there was evidence for noisier representations in dyslexic readers compared to typical readers. Results showed that there were no significant differences between the two groups in any of the analyses despite robust results within each group (i.e., high representational similarity between repeated words, good classification of words vs. non-words). In summary, there was no evidence in favor of the idea that dyslexic readers would have noisier neural representations than typical readers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yufei Tan
- CNRS, Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (UMR 7290), Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Valérie Chanoine
- Institute of Language, Communication and the Brain, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Eddy Cavalli
- Laboratoire d’Étude des Mécanismes Cognitifs (EA 3082), Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon, France
| | - Jean-Luc Anton
- CNRS, Institut des Neurosciences de la Timone (UMR 7289), Centre IRM-INT@CERIMED, Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Johannes C. Ziegler
- CNRS, Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (UMR 7290), Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
- *Correspondence: Johannes C. Ziegler, ; orcid.org/0000-0002-2061-5729
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19
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Reynolds G, Werfel K. Impact of FM System Use on Acquisition of Phonological Awareness Skills for Children at Risk of Dyslexia: A Preliminary Classroom Study. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGY 2022; 31:2078-2091. [PMID: 36037513 DOI: 10.1044/2022_ajslp-22-00002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE This study evaluated the effects of utilizing a frequency modulation (FM) system during phonological awareness intervention for students at risk for dyslexia in a classroom setting. METHOD Four first-grade students participated in an adapted-alternating single-case design study. Participants completed intervention targeting two phonological awareness skills and were assigned to wear an FM system during lessons targeting one skill and no FM system during lessons targeting the second skill. Performance was assessed using daily assessments on the skills targeted during intervention and one additional skill. RESULTS Two participants demonstrated quicker and more pronounced improvement on the skill learned while wearing the FM system. The other two participants did not show improvement on any skill. CONCLUSIONS For children who made gains as a result of phonological awareness intervention, the FM system was associated with quicker and greater improvement. FM systems show promise as a tool to use during phonological awareness training for at least some children at risk for dyslexia. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.20540139.
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20
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Miller GJ, Lewis BA. Reading Skills in Children With Suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech and Children With Reading Disorders: Same or Different? Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch 2022; 53:985-1005. [PMID: 35947819 DOI: 10.1044/2022_lshss-21-00149] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE The primary aim of this study was to compare decoding and literacy-related skills of children with suspected childhood apraxia of speech (sCAS) to children with reading disorders (RD) and no history of speech sound disorder (RD-no SSD) to determine if the groups differ in decoding and the endophenotypes that contribute to RD. We also explored the association between language impairment (LI) and decoding and literacy-related skills within the participant group with sCAS. METHOD Participants were school-age children and adolescents, 8-14 years of age, with a diagnosis of sCAS (n = 13) or RD-no SSD (n = 16). The sCAS and RD-no SSD groups were compared on measures of single-word decoding, oral language, motor-speech skills, phonological processing, and speech-in-noise perception, employing t tests and analysis of covariance. The sCAS + LI and sCAS-only groups were compared on similar measures using t tests. RESULTS Compared to the RD-no SSD group, the sCAS group performed significantly worse on measures of phonological processing, multisyllable word repetition, diadochokinetic rate, and speech-in-noise perception. The groups did not differ on measures of single-word decoding, with mean scores for both groups falling below average. All participants with sCAS + LI demonstrated deficits in literacy and literacy-related skills compared to a smaller percentage of the sCAS-only group. CONCLUSIONS Children with sCAS and children with RD-no SSD demonstrate similar impairments in literacy. However, the endophenotypes underlying these difficulties can differ between the groups. Deficits in skills needed for literacy may require specifically tailored interventions to address reading difficulties for children with sCAS, especially for those with comorbid LI.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gabrielle J Miller
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
| | - Barbara A Lewis
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH
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21
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Repeated series learning revisited with a novel prediction on the reduced effect of item frequency in dyslexia. Sci Rep 2022; 12:13521. [PMID: 35941176 PMCID: PMC9359986 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-16805-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 07/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia, a difficulty with acquiring fluent reading, has also been characterized by reduced short-term memory (STM) capacity, which is often operationalized with span tasks. The low performance of individuals with dyslexia (IDDs) in such tasks is commonly attributed to poor phonological memory. However, we suggest an alternative explanation based on the observation that many times the items that are used in spans tasks are high-frequency items (e.g., digit words). We suggest that IDDs do not enjoy the benefit of item frequency to the same extent as controls, and thus their performance in span tasks is especially hampered. On the contrary, learning of repeated sequences was shown to be largely independent of item frequency, and therefore this type of learning may be unimpaired in dyslexia. To test both predictions, we used the Hebb-learning paradigm. We found that IDDs’ performance is especially poor compared to controls’ when high-frequency items are used, and that their repeated series learning does not differ from that of controls. Taken together with existing literature, our findings suggest that impaired learning of repeated series is not a core characteristic of dyslexia, and that the reports on reduced STM in dyslexia may to a large extent be explained by reduced benefit of item frequency.
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22
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Mari G, Picciotti PM, Martina BM, Loperfido A, Zagari F, Proietti I, Longobardi Y, D'Alatri L. Speech perception in noise in children with dyslexia: Does speech sound disorder matter? DYSLEXIA (CHICHESTER, ENGLAND) 2022; 28:202-211. [PMID: 35234325 DOI: 10.1002/dys.1710] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2020] [Revised: 01/18/2022] [Accepted: 02/15/2022] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
The aim of this observational cohort study with a control group is to compare consonant perception skills in quiet and in noise in children with typical language and learning development and in children with dyslexia, with and without Speech Sound Disorder (SSD). Three groups were included: A control group of twenty children with normal reading abilities and typical language development, twelve children with dyslexia and typical language development and thirteen children with dyslexia and SSD. All subjects received a consonant recognition test in three different listening conditions (quiet, + 10 and 0 Signal-to-Noise Ratio). In all test conditions, children with dyslexia and SSD had significantly lower consonant recognition scores than the control group and the children with dyslexia and typical language development (p < .0001). The poorer performances observed in children with dyslexia and SSD may be explained by impaired phonological processing underlying both conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Giorgia Mari
- Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery Unit, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli" - IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Pasqualina Maria Picciotti
- Head & Neck Department, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
- Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery Unit, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli" - IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Bianca Maria Martina
- Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery Unit, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli" - IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Antonella Loperfido
- Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery Unit, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli" - IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Felicia Zagari
- Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery Unit, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli" - IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Ilaria Proietti
- Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery Unit, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli" - IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Ylenia Longobardi
- Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery Unit, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli" - IRCCS, Rome, Italy
| | - Lucia D'Alatri
- Head & Neck Department, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Rome, Italy
- Otorhinolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery Unit, Fondazione Policlinico Universitario "A. Gemelli" - IRCCS, Rome, Italy
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23
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Abstract
Hearing in noise is a core problem in audition, and a challenge for hearing-impaired listeners, yet the underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. We explored whether harmonic frequency relations, a signature property of many communication sounds, aid hearing in noise for normal hearing listeners. We measured detection thresholds in noise for tones and speech synthesized to have harmonic or inharmonic spectra. Harmonic signals were consistently easier to detect than otherwise identical inharmonic signals. Harmonicity also improved discrimination of sounds in noise. The largest benefits were observed for two-note up-down "pitch" discrimination and melodic contour discrimination, both of which could be performed equally well with harmonic and inharmonic tones in quiet, but which showed large harmonic advantages in noise. The results show that harmonicity facilitates hearing in noise, plausibly by providing a noise-robust pitch cue that aids detection and discrimination.
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24
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The Intelligibility of Time-Compressed Speech Is Correlated with the Ability to Listen in Modulated Noise. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 2022; 23:413-426. [DOI: 10.1007/s10162-021-00832-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2021] [Accepted: 12/15/2021] [Indexed: 10/18/2022] Open
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25
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Destoky F, Bertels J, Niesen M, Wens V, Vander Ghinst M, Rovai A, Trotta N, Lallier M, De Tiège X, Bourguignon M. The role of reading experience in atypical cortical tracking of speech and speech-in-noise in dyslexia. Neuroimage 2022; 253:119061. [PMID: 35259526 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119061] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Revised: 02/28/2022] [Accepted: 03/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Dyslexia is a frequent developmental disorder in which reading acquisition is delayed and that is usually associated with difficulties understanding speech in noise. At the neuronal level, children with dyslexia were reported to display abnormal cortical tracking of speech (CTS) at phrasal rate. Here, we aimed to determine if abnormal tracking relates to reduced reading experience, and if it is modulated by the severity of dyslexia or the presence of acoustic noise. We included 26 school-age children with dyslexia, 26 age-matched controls and 26 reading-level matched controls. All were native French speakers. Children's brain activity was recorded with magnetoencephalography while they listened to continuous speech in noiseless and multiple noise conditions. CTS values were compared between groups, conditions and hemispheres, and also within groups, between children with mild and severe dyslexia. Syllabic CTS was significantly reduced in the right superior temporal gyrus in children with dyslexia compared with controls matched for age but not for reading level. Severe dyslexia was characterized by lower rapid automatized naming (RAN) abilities compared with mild dyslexia, and phrasal CTS lateralized to the right hemisphere in children with mild dyslexia and all control groups but not in children with severe dyslexia. Finally, an alteration in phrasal CTS was uncovered in children with dyslexia compared with age-matched controls in babble noise conditions but not in other less challenging listening conditions (non-speech noise or noiseless conditions); no such effect was seen in comparison with reading-level matched controls. Overall, our results confirmed the finding of altered neuronal basis of speech perception in noiseless and babble noise conditions in dyslexia compared with age-matched peers. However, the absence of alteration in comparison with reading-level matched controls demonstrates that such alterations are associated with reduced reading level, suggesting they are merely driven by reduced reading experience rather than a cause of dyslexia. Finally, our result of altered hemispheric lateralization of phrasal CTS in relation with altered RAN abilities in severe dyslexia is in line with a temporal sampling deficit of speech at phrasal rate in dyslexia.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian Destoky
- Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium.
| | - Julie Bertels
- Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Consciousness, Cognition and Computation Group, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Maxime Niesen
- Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Service d'ORL et de Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, ULB-Hôpital Erasme, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
| | - Vincent Wens
- Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Department of Functional Neuroima ging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Marc Vander Ghinst
- Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Service d'ORL et de Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, ULB-Hôpital Erasme, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
| | - Antonin Rovai
- Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Department of Functional Neuroima ging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Nicola Trotta
- Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Department of Functional Neuroima ging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Marie Lallier
- BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian 20009, Spain
| | - Xavier De Tiège
- Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Department of Functional Neuroima ging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Mathieu Bourguignon
- Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian 20009, Spain; Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Movement Biomechanics, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
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26
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Jacewicz E, Arzbecker LJ, Fox RA. Perception of indexical cues in speech by children and adults with and without dyslexia: Regional dialect and gender identification. DYSLEXIA (CHICHESTER, ENGLAND) 2022; 28:60-78. [PMID: 34612551 DOI: 10.1002/dys.1702] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2020] [Revised: 05/07/2021] [Accepted: 09/20/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Auditory research in developmental dyslexia proposes that deficient auditory processing of speech underlies difficulties with reading and spelling. Focusing predominantly on phonological processing, studies have not yet addressed the role of the speaker-related (indexical) properties of speech that enable the formation of phonological representations. Here, we assess auditory processing of indexical characteristics cueing a speaker's regional dialect and gender to determine whether dyslexia constraints recognition of dialect features and voice gender. Adults and children aged 11-14 years with dyslexia and their age-matched controls responded to 360 unique sentences extracted from spontaneous conversations of 40 speakers. In addition to the original unprocessed speech, there were two focused filtered conditions (using lowpass filtering at 400 Hz and 8-channel noise vocoding) probing listeners' responses to segmental and prosodic cues. Compared with controls, both groups with dyslexia were significantly limited in their abilities to recognize dialect features from either set of cues. The results for gender suggest that their comparatively worse gender recognition in the noise-vocoded condition was possibly related to poor temporal resolution. We propose that the deficient processing of indexical cues by individuals with dyslexia originates in peripheral auditory processes, of which impaired processing of relevant temporal cues in amplitude envelope is a likely candidate.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ewa Jacewicz
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
| | - Lian J Arzbecker
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
| | - Robert Allen Fox
- Department of Speech and Hearing Science, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, USA
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27
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Beach SD, Lim SJ, Cardenas-Iniguez C, Eddy MD, Gabrieli JDE, Perrachione TK. Electrophysiological correlates of perceptual prediction error are attenuated in dyslexia. Neuropsychologia 2022; 165:108091. [PMID: 34801517 PMCID: PMC8807066 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.108091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/21/2021] [Revised: 10/09/2021] [Accepted: 11/17/2021] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Abstract
A perceptual adaptation deficit often accompanies reading difficulty in dyslexia, manifesting in poor perceptual learning of consistent stimuli and reduced neurophysiological adaptation to stimulus repetition. However, it is not known how adaptation deficits relate to differences in feedforward or feedback processes in the brain. Here we used electroencephalography (EEG) to interrogate the feedforward and feedback contributions to neural adaptation as adults with and without dyslexia viewed pairs of faces and words in a paradigm that manipulated whether there was a high probability of stimulus repetition versus a high probability of stimulus change. We measured three neural dependent variables: expectation (the difference between prestimulus EEG power with and without the expectation of stimulus repetition), feedforward repetition (the difference between event-related potentials (ERPs) evoked by an expected change and an unexpected repetition), and feedback-mediated prediction error (the difference between ERPs evoked by an unexpected change and an expected repetition). Expectation significantly modulated prestimulus theta- and alpha-band EEG in both groups. Unexpected repetitions of words, but not faces, also led to significant feedforward repetition effects in the ERPs of both groups. However, neural prediction error when an unexpected change occurred instead of an expected repetition was significantly weaker in dyslexia than the control group for both faces and words. These results suggest that the neural and perceptual adaptation deficits observed in dyslexia reflect the failure to effectively integrate perceptual predictions with feedforward sensory processing. In addition to reducing perceptual efficiency, the attenuation of neural prediction error signals would also be deleterious to the wide range of perceptual and procedural learning abilities that are critical for developing accurate and fluent reading skills.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara D. Beach
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A.,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A.,Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard University, 260 Longwood Avenue, Boston, MA 02115 U.S.A
| | - Sung-Joo Lim
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 U.S.A
| | - Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A
| | - Marianna D. Eddy
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A
| | - John D. E. Gabrieli
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A.,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A
| | - Tyler K. Perrachione
- McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139 U.S.A.,Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 U.S.A.,Correspondence: Tyler K. Perrachione, Ph.D., Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215, Phone: +1.617.358.7410,
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28
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Evans S, Rosen S. Who is Right? A Word-Identification-in-Noise Test for Young Children Using Minimal Pair Distracters. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2022; 65:159-168. [PMID: 34910569 DOI: 10.1044/2021_jslhr-20-00658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Many children have difficulties understanding speech. At present, there are few assessments that test for subtle impairments in speech perception with normative data from U.K. children. We present a new test that evaluates children's ability to identify target words in background noise by choosing between minimal pair alternatives that differ by a single articulatory phonetic feature. This task (a) is tailored to testing young children, but also readily applicable to adults; (b) has minimal memory demands; (c) adapts to the child's ability; and (d) does not require reading or verbal output. METHOD We tested 155 children and young adults aged from 5 to 25 years on this new test of single word perception. RESULTS Speech-in-noise abilities in this particular task develop rapidly through childhood until they reach maturity at around 9 years of age. CONCLUSIONS We make this test freely available and provide associated normative data. We hope that it will be useful to researchers and clinicians in the assessment of speech perception abilities in children who are hard of hearing or have developmental language disorder, dyslexia, or auditory processing disorder. SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.17155934.
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Affiliation(s)
- Samuel Evans
- Department of Psychology, University of Westminster, London, United Kingdom
| | - Stuart Rosen
- Department of Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, University College London, United Kingdom
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29
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Pitchaimuthu A, Ananth E, Bhat JS, Haralakatta Shivananjappa S. Comparison of temporal fine structure sensitivity and concurrent vowel perception between children with and without reading disability. F1000Res 2021; 9:1271. [PMID: 35035902 PMCID: PMC8729192 DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.21544.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/26/2021] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Background: Children with reading disabilities (RD) exhibit difficulty in perceiving speech in background noise due to poor auditory stream segregation. There is a dearth of literature on measures of temporal fine structure sensitivity (TFS) and concurrent vowel perception abilities to assess auditory stream segregation in children with reading disabilities. Hence the present study compared temporal fine structure sensitivity (TFS) and concurrent vowel perception abilities between children with and without reading deficits. Method: The present research consisted of a total number of 30 participants, 15 children with reading disabilities (RD) and fifteen typically developing (TD) children within the age range of 7-14 years and were designated as Group 1 and Group 2 respectively. Both groups were matched for age, grade, and classroom curricular instructions. The groups were evaluated for TFS and concurrent vowel perception abilities and the performance was compared using independent ‘t’ test and repeated measure ANOVA respectively. Results: Results revealed that the children with RD performed significantly (p < 0.001) poorer than TD children on both TFS and concurrent vowel identification task. On concurrent vowel identification tasks, there was no significant interaction found between reading ability and F0 difference suggesting that the trend was similar in both the groups. Conclusion: The study concludes that the children with RD show poor temporal fine structure sensitivity and concurrent vowel identification scores compared to age and grade matched TD children owing to poor auditory stream segregation in children with RD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arivudainambi Pitchaimuthu
- Department of Audiology & Speech Language Pathology, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, Karnataka, 575001, India
| | - Eshwari Ananth
- Department of Audiology & Speech Language Pathology, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, Karnataka, 575001, India
| | - Jayashree S Bhat
- Department of Audiology & Speech Language Pathology, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, Karnataka, 575001, India
| | - Somashekara Haralakatta Shivananjappa
- Department of Audiology & Speech Language Pathology, Kasturba Medical College, Mangalore, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, Karnataka, 575001, India
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30
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Zou L, Xia Z, Zhang W, Zhang X, Shu H. Brain responses during auditory word recognition vary with reading ability in Chinese school-age children. Dev Sci 2021; 25:e13216. [PMID: 34910843 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13216] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2021] [Revised: 10/07/2021] [Accepted: 12/06/2021] [Indexed: 12/28/2022]
Abstract
While the close relationship between the brain system for speech processing and reading development is well-documented in alphabetic languages, whether and how such a link exists in children in a language without systematic grapheme-phoneme correspondence has not been directly investigated. In the present study, we measured Chinese children's brain activation during an auditory lexical decision task with functional magnetic resonance imaging. The results showed that brain areas distributed across the temporal and frontal lobes activated during spoken word recognition. In addition, the left occipitotemporal cortex (OTC) was recruited, especially under the real word condition, thus confirming the involvement of this orthographic-related area in spoken language processing in Chinese children. Importantly, activation of the left temporoparietal cortex (TPC) in response to words and pseudowords was positively correlated with children's reading ability, thus supporting the salient role phonological processing plays in Chinese reading in the developing brain. Furthermore, children with higher reading scores also increasingly recruited the left anterior OTC to make decisions on the lexical status of pseudowords, indicating that higher-skill children tend to search abstract lexical representations more deeply than lower-skill children in deciding whether spoken syllables are real. In contrast, the precuneus was more related to trial-by-trial reaction time in lower-skill children, suggesting that effort-related neural systems differ among pupils with varying reading abilities. Taken together, these findings suggest a strong link between the neural correlates of speech processing and reading ability in Chinese children, thus supporting a universal basis underlying reading development across languages.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lijuan Zou
- School of Psychology, Shandong Normal University, Jinan, China.,School of Psychology and Education, Zaozhuang University, Zaozhuang, China
| | - Zhichao Xia
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.,School of Systems Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Wei Zhang
- College of Chemical Engineering and Material Science, Zaozhuang University, Zaozhuang, China
| | - Xianglin Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
| | - Hua Shu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
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31
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Gransier R, Wouters J. Neural auditory processing of parameterized speech envelopes. Hear Res 2021; 412:108374. [PMID: 34800800 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2021.108374] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2021] [Revised: 10/01/2021] [Accepted: 10/13/2021] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Abstract
Speech perception depends highly on the neural processing of the speech envelope. Several auditory processing deficits are hypothesized to result in a reduction in fidelity of the neural representation of the speech envelope across the auditory pathway. Furthermore, this reduction in fidelity is associated with supra-threshold speech processing deficits. Investigating the mechanisms that affect the neural encoding of the speech envelope can be of great value to gain insight in the different mechanisms that account for this reduced neural representation, and to develop stimulation strategies for hearing prosthesis that aim to restore it. In this perspective, we discuss the importance of neural assessment of phase-locking to the speech envelope from an audiological view and introduce the Temporal Envelope Speech Tracking (TEMPEST) stimulus framework which enables the electrophysiological assessment of envelope processing across the auditory pathway in a systematic and standardized way. We postulate that this framework can be used to gain insight in the salience of speech-like temporal envelopes in the neural code and to evaluate the effectiveness of stimulation strategies that aim to restore temporal processing across the auditory pathway with auditory prostheses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robin Gransier
- ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
| | - Jan Wouters
- ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
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32
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Ginzburg J, Moulin A, Fornoni L, Talamini F, Tillmann B, Caclin A. Development of auditory cognition in 5- to 10-year-old children: Focus on musical and verbal short-term memory. Dev Sci 2021; 25:e13188. [PMID: 34751481 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2020] [Revised: 10/20/2021] [Accepted: 10/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
Developmental aspects of auditory cognition were investigated in 5-to-10-year-old children (n = 100). Musical and verbal short-term memory (STM) were assessed by means of delayed matching-to-sample tasks (DMST) (comparison of two four-item sequences separated by a silent retention delay), with two levels of difficulty. For musical and verbal materials, children's performance increased from 5 years to about 7 years of age, then remained stable up to 10 years of age, with performance remaining inferior to performance of young adults. Children and adults performed better with verbal material than with musical material. To investigate auditory cognition beyond STM, we assessed speech-in-noise perception with a four-alternative forced-choice task with two conditions of phonological difficulty and two levels of cocktail-party noise intensity. Partial correlations, factoring out the effect of age, showed a significant link between musical STM and speech-in-noise perception in the condition with increased noise intensity. Our findings reveal that auditory STM improves over development with a critical phase around 6-7 years of age, yet these abilities appear to be still immature at 10 years. Musical and verbal STM might in particular share procedural and serial order processes. Furthermore, musical STM and the ability to perceive relevant speech signals in cocktail-party noise might rely on shared cognitive resources, possibly related to pitch encoding. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that auditory STM is assessed with the same paradigm for musical and verbal material during childhood, providing perspectives regarding diagnosis and remediation in developmental learning disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jérémie Ginzburg
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, UMR5292, INSERM, U1028, CNRS, Lyon, France.,University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Annie Moulin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, UMR5292, INSERM, U1028, CNRS, Lyon, France.,University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Lesly Fornoni
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, UMR5292, INSERM, U1028, CNRS, Lyon, France.,University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | | | - Barbara Tillmann
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, UMR5292, INSERM, U1028, CNRS, Lyon, France.,University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
| | - Anne Caclin
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, UMR5292, INSERM, U1028, CNRS, Lyon, France.,University Lyon 1, Lyon, France
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33
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Van Herck S, Vanden Bempt F, Economou M, Vanderauwera J, Glatz T, Dieudonné B, Vandermosten M, Ghesquière P, Wouters J. Ahead of maturation: Enhanced speech envelope training boosts rise time discrimination in pre-readers at cognitive risk for dyslexia. Dev Sci 2021; 25:e13186. [PMID: 34743382 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13186] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2021] [Revised: 09/24/2021] [Accepted: 10/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/24/2022]
Abstract
Dyslexia has frequently been related to atypical auditory temporal processing and speech perception. Results of studies emphasizing speech onset cues and reinforcing the temporal structure of the speech envelope, that is, envelope enhancement (EE), demonstrated reduced speech perception deficits in individuals with dyslexia. The use of this strategy as auditory intervention might thus reduce some of the deficits related to dyslexia. Importantly, reading-skill interventions are most effective when they are provided during kindergarten and first grade. Hence, we provided a tablet-based 12-week auditory and phonics-based intervention to pre-readers at cognitive risk for dyslexia and investigated the effect on auditory temporal processing with a rise time discrimination (RTD) task. Ninety-one pre-readers at cognitive risk for dyslexia (aged 5-6) were assigned to two groups receiving a phonics-based intervention and playing a story listening game either with (n = 31) or without (n = 31) EE or a third group playing control games and listening to non-enhanced stories (n = 29). RTD was measured directly before, directly after and 1 year after the intervention. While the groups listening to non-enhanced stories mainly improved after the intervention during first grade, the group listening to enhanced stories improved during the intervention in kindergarten and subsequently remained stable during first grade. Hence, an EE intervention improves auditory processing skills important for the development of phonological skills. This occurred before the onset of reading instruction, preceding the maturational improvement of these skills, hence potentially giving at risk children a head start when learning to read.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shauni Van Herck
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Femke Vanden Bempt
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Maria Economou
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jolijn Vanderauwera
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Leuven, Belgium.,Université Catholique de Louvain, Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.,Université Catholique de Louvain, Institute of Neuroscience, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Toivo Glatz
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Institute of Public Health, Charitéplatz 1, Berlin, Germany
| | - Benjamin Dieudonné
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Maaike Vandermosten
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Pol Ghesquière
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jan Wouters
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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34
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Granados Barbero R, de Vos A, Ghesquière P, Wouters J. Atypical processing in neural source analysis of speech envelope modulations in adolescents with dyslexia. Eur J Neurosci 2021; 54:7839-7859. [PMID: 34730259 DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2021] [Revised: 10/01/2021] [Accepted: 10/28/2021] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Different studies have suggested that language and developmental disorders such as dyslexia are associated with a disturbance of auditory entrainment and of the functional hemispheric asymmetries during speech processing. These disorders typically result from an issue in the phonological component of language that causes problems to represent and manipulate the phonological structure of words at the syllable and/or phoneme level. We used Auditory Steady-State Responses (ASSRs) in EEG recordings to investigate the brain activation and hemisphere asymmetry of theta, alpha, beta and low-gamma range oscillations in typical readers and readers with dyslexia. The aim was to analyse whether the group differences found in previous electrode level studies were caused by a different source activation pattern or conversely was an effect that could be found on the active brain sources. We could not find differences in the brain locations of the main active brain sources. However, we observed differences in the extracted waveforms. The group average of the first DSS component of all signal-to-noise ratios of ASSR at source level was higher than the group averages at the electrode level. These analyses included a lower alpha synchronisation in adolescents with dyslexia and the possibility of compensatory mechanisms in theta, beta and low-gamma frequency bands. The main brain auditory sources were located in cortical regions around the auditory cortex. Thus, the differences observed in auditory EEG experiments would, according to our findings, have their origin in the intrinsic oscillatory mechanisms of the brain cortical sources related to speech perception.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raúl Granados Barbero
- Research Group Experimental ORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Astrid de Vos
- Research Group Experimental ORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Pol Ghesquière
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jan Wouters
- Research Group Experimental ORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven - University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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35
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Increased reliance on top-down information to compensate for reduced bottom-up use of acoustic cues in dyslexia. Psychon Bull Rev 2021; 29:281-292. [PMID: 34561852 PMCID: PMC8858289 DOI: 10.3758/s13423-021-01996-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/12/2021] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Speech recognition is a complex human behavior in the course of which listeners must integrate the detailed phonetic information present in the acoustic signal with their general linguistic knowledge. It is commonly assumed that this process occurs effortlessly for most people, but it is still unclear whether this also holds true in the case of developmental dyslexia (DD), a condition characterized by perceptual deficits. In the present study, we used a dual-task setting to test the assumption that speech recognition is effortful for people with DD. In particular, we tested the Ganong effect (i.e., lexical bias on phoneme identification) while participants performed a secondary task of either low or high cognitive demand. We presumed that reduced efficiency in perceptual processing in DD would manifest in greater modulation in the performance of primary task by cognitive load. Results revealed that this was indeed the case. We found a larger Ganong effect in the DD group under high than under low cognitive load, and this modulation was larger than it was for typically developed (TD) readers. Furthermore, phoneme categorization was less precise in the DD group than in the TD group. These findings suggest that individuals with DD show increased reliance on top-down lexically mediated perception processes, possibly as a compensatory mechanism for reduced efficiency in bottom-up use of acoustic cues. This indicates an imbalance between bottom-up and top-down processes in speech recognition of individuals with DD.
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36
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Vander Ghinst M, Bourguignon M, Wens V, Naeije G, Ducène C, Niesen M, Hassid S, Choufani G, Goldman S, De Tiège X. Inaccurate cortical tracking of speech in adults with impaired speech perception in noise. Brain Commun 2021; 3:fcab186. [PMID: 34541530 PMCID: PMC8445395 DOI: 10.1093/braincomms/fcab186] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/13/2021] [Revised: 06/05/2021] [Accepted: 06/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Impaired speech perception in noise despite normal peripheral auditory function is a common problem in young adults. Despite a growing body of research, the pathophysiology of this impairment remains unknown. This magnetoencephalography study characterizes the cortical tracking of speech in a multi-talker background in a group of highly selected adult subjects with impaired speech perception in noise without peripheral auditory dysfunction. Magnetoencephalographic signals were recorded from 13 subjects with impaired speech perception in noise (six females, mean age: 30 years) and matched healthy subjects while they were listening to 5 different recordings of stories merged with a multi-talker background at different signal to noise ratios (No Noise, +10, +5, 0 and −5 dB). The cortical tracking of speech was quantified with coherence between magnetoencephalographic signals and the temporal envelope of (i) the global auditory scene (i.e. the attended speech stream and the multi-talker background noise), (ii) the attended speech stream only and (iii) the multi-talker background noise. Functional connectivity was then estimated between brain areas showing altered cortical tracking of speech in noise in subjects with impaired speech perception in noise and the rest of the brain. All participants demonstrated a selective cortical representation of the attended speech stream in noisy conditions, but subjects with impaired speech perception in noise displayed reduced cortical tracking of speech at the syllable rate (i.e. 4–8 Hz) in all noisy conditions. Increased functional connectivity was observed in subjects with impaired speech perception in noise in Noiseless and speech in noise conditions between supratemporal auditory cortices and left-dominant brain areas involved in semantic and attention processes. The difficulty to understand speech in a multi-talker background in subjects with impaired speech perception in noise appears to be related to an inaccurate auditory cortex tracking of speech at the syllable rate. The increased functional connectivity between supratemporal auditory cortices and language/attention-related neocortical areas probably aims at supporting speech perception and subsequent recognition in adverse auditory scenes. Overall, this study argues for a central origin of impaired speech perception in noise in the absence of any peripheral auditory dysfunction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marc Vander Ghinst
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium.,Service, d'ORL et de chirurgie cervico-faciale, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
| | - Mathieu Bourguignon
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium.,Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Movement Biomechanics, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium.,Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL), Donostia/San Sebastian 20009, Spain
| | - Vincent Wens
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium.,Clinics of Functional Neuroimaging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
| | - Gilles Naeije
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium.,Service de Neurologie, ULB-Hôpital Erasme, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
| | - Cecile Ducène
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium.,Service, d'ORL et de chirurgie cervico-faciale, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
| | - Maxime Niesen
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium.,Service, d'ORL et de chirurgie cervico-faciale, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
| | - Sergio Hassid
- Service, d'ORL et de chirurgie cervico-faciale, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
| | - Georges Choufani
- Service, d'ORL et de chirurgie cervico-faciale, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
| | - Serge Goldman
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium.,Clinics of Functional Neuroimaging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
| | - Xavier De Tiège
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium.,Clinics of Functional Neuroimaging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
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Dębska A, Łuniewska M, Zubek J, Chyl K, Dynak A, Dzięgiel-Fivet G, Plewko J, Jednoróg K, Grabowska A. The cognitive basis of dyslexia in school-aged children: A multiple case study in a transparent orthography. Dev Sci 2021; 25:e13173. [PMID: 34448328 PMCID: PMC9285470 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2021] [Revised: 08/10/2021] [Accepted: 08/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
This study focuses on the role of numerous cognitive skills such as phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), visual and selective attention, auditory skills, and implicit learning in developmental dyslexia. We examined the (co)existence of cognitive deficits in dyslexia and assessed cognitive skills’ predictive value for reading. First, we compared school‐aged children with severe reading impairment (n = 51) to typical readers (n = 71) to explore the individual patterns of deficits in dyslexia. Children with dyslexia, as a group, presented low PA and RAN scores, as well as limited implicit learning skills. However, we found no differences in the other domains. We found a phonological deficit in 51% and a RAN deficit in 26% of children with dyslexia. These deficits coexisted in 14% of the children. Deficits in other cognitive domains were uncommon and most often coexisted with phonological or RAN deficits. Despite having a severe reading impairment, 26% of children with dyslexia did not present any of the tested deficits. Second, in a group of children presenting a wide range of reading abilities (N = 211), we analysed the relationship between cognitive skills and reading level. PA and RAN were independently related to reading abilities. Other skills did not explain any additional variance. The impact of PA and RAN on reading skills differed. While RAN was a consistent predictor of reading, PA predicted reading abilities particularly well in average and good readers with a smaller impact in poorer readers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agnieszka Dębska
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Magdalena Łuniewska
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.,Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Julian Zubek
- Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Katarzyna Chyl
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Agnieszka Dynak
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.,Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Gabriela Dzięgiel-Fivet
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Joanna Plewko
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Katarzyna Jednoróg
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Anna Grabowska
- Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland
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Mihai PG, Tschentscher N, von Kriegstein K. Modulation of the Primary Auditory Thalamus When Recognizing Speech with Background Noise. J Neurosci 2021; 41:7136-7147. [PMID: 34244362 PMCID: PMC8372015 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.2902-20.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/16/2020] [Revised: 05/18/2021] [Accepted: 05/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Recognizing speech in background noise is a strenuous daily activity, yet most humans can master it. An explanation of how the human brain deals with such sensory uncertainty during speech recognition is to-date missing. Previous work has shown that recognition of speech without background noise involves modulation of the auditory thalamus (medial geniculate body; MGB): there are higher responses in left MGB for speech recognition tasks that require tracking of fast-varying stimulus properties in contrast to relatively constant stimulus properties (e.g., speaker identity tasks) despite the same stimulus input. Here, we tested the hypotheses that (1) this task-dependent modulation for speech recognition increases in parallel with the sensory uncertainty in the speech signal, i.e., the amount of background noise; and that (2) this increase is present in the ventral MGB, which corresponds to the primary sensory part of the auditory thalamus. In accordance with our hypothesis, we show, by using ultra-high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in male and female human participants, that the task-dependent modulation of the left ventral MGB (vMGB) for speech is particularly strong when recognizing speech in noisy listening conditions in contrast to situations where the speech signal is clear. The results imply that speech in noise recognition is supported by modifications at the level of the subcortical sensory pathway providing driving input to the auditory cortex.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Speech recognition in noisy environments is a challenging everyday task. One reason why humans can master this task is the recruitment of additional cognitive resources as reflected in recruitment of non-language cerebral cortex areas. Here, we show that also modulation in the primary sensory pathway is specifically involved in speech in noise recognition. We found that the left primary sensory thalamus (ventral medial geniculate body; vMGB) is more involved when recognizing speech signals as opposed to a control task (speaker identity recognition) when heard in background noise versus when the noise was absent. This finding implies that the brain optimizes sensory processing in subcortical sensory pathway structures in a task-specific manner to deal with speech recognition in noisy environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paul Glad Mihai
- Chair of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden 01187, Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | - Nadja Tschentscher
- Research Unit Biological Psychology, Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich 80802, Germany
| | - Katharina von Kriegstein
- Chair of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden 01187, Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig 04103, Germany
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Ma J, Zhu J, Yang Y, Chen F. The Development of Categorical Perception of Segments and Suprasegments in Mandarin-Speaking Preschoolers. Front Psychol 2021; 12:693366. [PMID: 34354636 PMCID: PMC8329735 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.693366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/10/2021] [Accepted: 05/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
This study investigated the developmental trajectories of categorical perception (CP) of segments (i.e., stops) and suprasegments (i.e., lexical tones) in an attempt to examine the perceptual development of phonological categories and whether CP of suprasegments develops in parallel with that of segments. Forty-seven Mandarin-speaking monolingual preschoolers aged four to six years old, and fourteen adults completed both identification and discrimination tasks of the Tone 1-2 continuum and the /pa/-/pha/ continuum. Results revealed that children could perceive both lexical tones and aspiration of stops in a categorical manner by age four. The boundary position did not depend on age, with children having similar positions to adults regardless of speech continuum types. The boundary width, on the other hand, reached the adult-like level at age six for lexical tones, but not for stops. In addition, the within-category discrimination score did not differ significantly between children and adults for both continua. The between-category discrimination score improved with age and achieved the adult-like level at age five for lexical tones, but still not for stops even at age six. It suggests that the fine-grained perception of phonological categories is a protracted process, and the improvement and varying timeline of the development of segments and suprasegments are discussed in relation to statistical learning of the regularities of speech sounds in ambient language, ongoing maturation of perceptual systems, the memory mechanism underlying perceptual learning, and the intrinsic nature of speech elements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Junzhou Ma
- School of Foreign Languages, Taizhou University, Taizhou, China
| | - Jiaqiang Zhu
- School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha, China
| | - Yuxiao Yang
- Foreign Studies College, Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
| | - Fei Chen
- School of Foreign Languages, Hunan University, Changsha, China
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40
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Söderlund GBW, Åsberg Johnels J, Rothén B, Torstensson-Hultberg E, Magnusson A, Fälth L. Sensory white noise improves reading skills and memory recall in children with reading disability. Brain Behav 2021; 11:e02114. [PMID: 34096202 PMCID: PMC8323032 DOI: 10.1002/brb3.2114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2020] [Revised: 02/28/2021] [Accepted: 03/01/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Reading disability (RD) is characterized by slow and inaccurate word reading development, commonly reflecting underlying phonological problems. We have previously shown that exposure to white noise acutely improves cognitive performance in children with ADHD. The question addressed here is whether white noise exposure yields positive outcomes also for RD. There are theoretical reasons to expect such a possibility: a) RD and ADHD are two overlapping neurodevelopmental disorders and b) since prior research on white noise benefits has suggested that a central mechanism might be the phenomenon of stochastic resonance, then adding certain kinds of white noise might strengthen the signal-to-noise ratio during phonological processing and phoneme-grapheme mapping. METHODS The study was conducted with a group of 30 children with RD and phonological decoding difficulties and two comparison groups: one consisting of skilled readers (n = 22) and another of children with mild orthographic reading problems and age adequate phonological decoding (n = 30). White noise was presented experimentally in visual and auditory modalities, while the children performed tests of single word reading, orthographic word recognition, nonword reading, and memory recall. RESULTS For the first time, we show that visual and auditory white noise exposure improves some reading and memory capacities "on the fly" in children with RD and phonological decoding difficulties. By contrast, the comparison groups displayed either no benefit or a gradual decrease in performance with increasing noise. In interviews, we also found that the white noise exposure was tolerable or even preferred by many children. CONCLUSION These novel findings suggest that poor readers with phonological decoding difficulties may be immediately helped by white noise during reading. Future research is needed to determine the robustness, mechanisms, and long-term practical implications of the white noise benefits in children with reading disabilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Göran B W Söderlund
- Faculty of Teacher Education Arts and Sports, Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Sogndal, Norway.,Department of Education and Special Education, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Jakob Åsberg Johnels
- Speech and Language Pathology Unit & the Gillberg Neuropsychiatry Centre, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, Silvia Children's Hospital, University of Gothenburg & The Child Neuropsychiatric Clinic, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Bodil Rothén
- Department of Pedagogy and Learning, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden
| | | | - Andreas Magnusson
- Complex Adaptive Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - Linda Fälth
- Department of Pedagogy and Learning, Linnaeus University, Växjö, Sweden
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41
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[Effects of the Computer-Based Grapho-Phonological Training Lautarium in Children with Developmental Dyslexia]. Prax Kinderpsychol Kinderpsychiatr 2021; 70:333-355. [PMID: 33977875 DOI: 10.13109/prkk.2021.70.4.333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Effects of the Computer-Based Grapho-Phonological Training Lautarium in Children with Developmental Dyslexia The effects of the computer-based training program Lautarium on phonological awareness and literacy skills were investigated in 41 third-grade children with developmental dyslexia who attended special dyslexia classes in a primary school in Saxony, Germany. Based on the proven efficacy of phonics-based instruction, Lautarium combines training of phoneme perception and phonological awareness with training of grapheme-phoneme-relationships and reading and spelling of transparent words. In addition, rapid access from written words to meaning is included. The children of the training group (N = 27) worked through the program during school lessons, 5 times per week for 30 minutes, for a period of 7 weeks. During the training period, the controls (N = 14) received traditional remedial reading instruction, 2-3 times per week, in small groups. Children's performance in phonological awareness, reading, and spelling was assessed at three time points (pretest, immediate posttest, and follow-up after 9 weeks). Pretest scores did not differ between groups. For spelling and subtests of phonological awareness, group comparisons of raw scores at posttest and follow-up including the respective pretest score as covariate confirmed stronger improvements in the training group when compared to the controls. Effect sizes were medium to strong. For reading, improvements did not differ between groups. In both groups, standard scores (T-scores) for reading and spelling increased significantly and substantially across the study period (from pretest to follow-up). The results confirm the efficacy of computer-based training with Lautarium in children with dyslexia, and the efficacy of school-based remedial instruction provided in the dyslexia classes.
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42
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Zhang L, Schlaghecken F, Harte J, Roberts KL. The Influence of the Type of Background Noise on Perceptual Learning of Speech in Noise. Front Neurosci 2021; 15:646137. [PMID: 34012384 PMCID: PMC8126633 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2021.646137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/25/2020] [Accepted: 04/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Objectives Auditory perceptual learning studies tend to focus on the nature of the target stimuli. However, features of the background noise can also have a significant impact on the amount of benefit that participants obtain from training. This study explores whether perceptual learning of speech in background babble noise generalizes to other, real-life environmental background noises (car and rain), and if the benefits are sustained over time. Design Normal-hearing native English speakers were randomly assigned to a training (n = 12) or control group (n = 12). Both groups completed a pre- and post-test session in which they identified Bamford-Kowal-Bench (BKB) target words in babble, car, or rain noise. The training group completed speech-in-babble noise training on three consecutive days between the pre- and post-tests. A follow up session was conducted between 8 and 18 weeks after the post-test session (training group: n = 9; control group: n = 7). Results Participants who received training had significantly higher post-test word identification accuracy than control participants for all three types of noise, although benefits were greatest for the babble noise condition and weaker for the car- and rain-noise conditions. Both training and control groups maintained their pre- to post-test improvement over a period of several weeks for speech in babble noise, but returned to pre-test accuracy for speech in car and rain noise. Conclusion The findings show that training benefits can show some generalization from speech-in-babble noise to speech in other types of environmental noise. Both groups sustained their learning over a period of several weeks for speech-in-babble noise. As the control group received equal exposure to all three noise types, the sustained learning with babble noise, but not other noises, implies that a structural feature of babble noise was conducive to the sustained improvement. These findings emphasize the importance of considering the background noise as well as the target stimuli in auditory perceptual learning studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Liping Zhang
- Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Shandong Provincial ENT Hospital, Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Jinan, China.,Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom
| | | | - James Harte
- Warwick Manufacturing Group, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.,Interacoustics Research Unit, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Katherine L Roberts
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom.,Department of Psychology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom
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43
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Van Hirtum T, Ghesquière P, Wouters J. A Bridge over Troubled Listening: Improving Speech-in-Noise Perception by Children with Dyslexia. J Assoc Res Otolaryngol 2021; 22:465-480. [PMID: 33861393 DOI: 10.1007/s10162-021-00793-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2020] [Accepted: 02/26/2021] [Indexed: 10/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia is most commonly associated with phonological processing difficulties. However, children with dyslexia may experience poor speech-in-noise perception as well. Although there is an ongoing debate whether a speech perception deficit is inherent to dyslexia or acts as an aggravating risk factor compromising learning to read indirectly, improving speech perception might boost reading-related skills and reading acquisition. In the current study, we evaluated advanced speech technology as applied in auditory prostheses, to promote and eventually normalize speech perception of school-aged children with dyslexia, i.e., envelope enhancement (EE). The EE strategy automatically detects and emphasizes onset cues and consequently reinforces the temporal structure of the speech envelope. Our results confirmed speech-in-noise perception difficulties by children with dyslexia. However, we found that exaggerating temporal "landmarks" of the speech envelope (i.e., amplitude rise time and modulations)-by using EE-passively and instantaneously improved speech perception in noise for children with dyslexia. Moreover, the benefit derived from EE was large enough to completely bridge the initial gap between children with dyslexia and their typical reading peers. Taken together, the beneficial outcome of EE suggests an important contribution of the temporal structure of the envelope to speech perception in noise difficulties in dyslexia, providing an interesting foundation for future intervention studies based on auditory and speech rhythm training.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tilde Van Hirtum
- Department of Neurosciences, Research Group Experimental ORL, KU Leuven University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. .,Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, KU Leuven University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
| | - Pol Ghesquière
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, KU Leuven University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jan Wouters
- Department of Neurosciences, Research Group Experimental ORL, KU Leuven University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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44
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Development of central auditory processes in Polish children and adolescents at the age from 7 to 16 years. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-021-01540-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
Abstract
AbstractThere are discrepancies in the literature regarding the course of central auditory processes (CAP) maturation in typically developing children and adolescents. The purpose of the study was to provide an overview of age – related improvement in CAP in Polish primary and secondary school students aged 7–16 years. 180 children/adolescents, subdivided into 9 age categories, and 20 adults (aged 18–24 years) performed the Dichotic Digit Test (DDT), Duration Pattern Test (DPT), Frequency Pattern Test (FPT), Gap Detection Test (GDT) and adaptive Speech-in-Noise (aSpN). The 12-year-olds was retested after w week. We found the age effects only for the DDT, DPT and FPT. In the right ear DDT the 7-year-olds performed more poorly than all groups ≥12. In the left ear DDT both 7- and 8-year-olds achieved less correct responses compared with the 13-, 14-, 15-year-olds and with the adults. The right ear advantage was greater in the 7-year-olds than in the 15-year-olds and adult group. At the age of 7 there was lower DPT and FPT scores than in all participants ≥13 whereas the 8-year-olds obtained less correct responses in the FPT than all age categories ≥12. Almost all groups (except for the 7-year-olds) performed better in the DPT than FPT. The test-retest reliability for all tests was satisfactory. The study demonstrated that different CAP have their own patterns of improvement with age and some of them are specific for the Polish population. The psychoacoustic battery may be useful in screening for CAP disorders in Poland.
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45
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Schafer EC, Kirby B, Miller S. Remote Microphone Technology for Children with Hearing Loss or Auditory Processing Issues. Semin Hear 2020; 41:277-290. [PMID: 33364677 DOI: 10.1055/s-0040-1718713] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022] Open
Abstract
School classrooms are noisy and reverberant environments, and the poor acoustics can be a barrier to successful learning in children, particularly those with multiple disabilities, auditory processing issues, and hearing loss. A new set of listening challenges have been imposed by the recent global pandemic and subsequent online learning requirements. The goal of this article is to review the impact of poor acoustics on the performance of children with auditory processing issues, mild hearing loss, and unilateral hearing loss. In addition, we will summarize the evidence in support of remote microphone technology by these populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin C Schafer
- Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas
| | - Benjamin Kirby
- Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas
| | - Sharon Miller
- Department of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas
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46
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Zhang L, Li Y, Zhou H, Zhang Y, Shu H. Sentence Context Differentially Modulates Contributions of Fundamental Frequency Contours to Word Recognition in Chinese-Speaking Children With and Without Dyslexia. Front Psychol 2020; 11:598658. [PMID: 33343469 PMCID: PMC7744682 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.598658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2020] [Accepted: 11/05/2020] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Previous work has shown that children with dyslexia are impaired in speech recognition in adverse listening conditions. Our study further examined how semantic context and fundamental frequency (F0) contours contribute to word recognition against interfering speech in dyslexic and non-dyslexic children. Thirty-two children with dyslexia and 35 chronological-age-matched control children were tested on the recognition of words in normal sentences versus wordlist sentences with natural versus flat F0 contours against single-talker interference. The dyslexic children had overall poorer recognition performance than non-dyslexic children. Furthermore, semantic context differentially modulated the effect of F0 contours on the recognition performances of the two groups. Specifically, compared with flat F0 contours, natural F0 contours increased the recognition accuracy of dyslexic children less than non-dyslexic children in the wordlist condition. By contrast, natural F0 contours increased the recognition accuracy of both groups to a similar extent in the sentence condition. These results indicate that access to semantic context improves the effect of natural F0 contours on word recognition in adverse listening conditions by dyslexic children who are more impaired in the use of natural F0 contours during isolated and unrelated word recognition. Our findings have practical implications for communication with dyslexic children when listening conditions are unfavorable.
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Affiliation(s)
- Linjun Zhang
- Beijing Advanced Innovation Center for Language Resources and College of Advanced Chinese Training, Beijing Language and Culture University, Beijing, China
| | - Yu Li
- Department of Applied Psychology, Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College, Zhuhai, China
| | - Hong Zhou
- International Cultural Exchange School, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shanghai, China
| | - Yang Zhang
- Department of Speech-Language-Hearing Sciences, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States.,Center for Neurobehavioral Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States
| | - Hua Shu
- National Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
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Auditory processing in children: Role of working memory and lexical ability in auditory closure. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0240534. [PMID: 33147602 PMCID: PMC7641369 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0240534] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2020] [Accepted: 09/28/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
We examined the relationship between cognitive-linguistic mechanisms and auditory closure ability in children. Sixty-seven school-age children recognized isolated words and keywords in sentences that were interrupted at a rate of 2.5 Hz and 5 Hz. In essence, children were given only 50% of speech information and asked to repeat the complete word or sentence. Children’s working memory capacity (WMC), attention, lexical knowledge, and retrieval from long-term memory (LTM) abilities were also measured to model their role in auditory closure ability. Overall, recognition of monosyllabic words and lexically easy multisyllabic words was significantly better at 2.5 Hz interruption rate than 5 Hz. Recognition of lexically hard multisyllabic words and keywords in sentences was better at 5 Hz relative to 2.5 Hz. Based on the best fit generalized “logistic” linear mixed effects models, there was a significant interaction between WMC and lexical difficulty of words. WMC was positively related only to recognition of lexically easy words. Lexical knowledge was found to be crucial for recognition of words and sentences, regardless of interruption rate. In addition, LTM retrieval ability was significantly associated with sentence recognition. These results suggest that lexical knowledge and the ability to retrieve information from LTM is crucial for children’s speech recognition in adverse listening situations. Study findings make a compelling case for the assessment and intervention of lexical knowledge and retrieval abilities in children with listening difficulties.
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Effects of computerized grapho-phonological training on literacy acquisition and vocabulary knowledge in children with an immigrant background learning German as L2. JOURNAL OF CULTURAL COGNITIVE SCIENCE 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s41809-020-00064-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
AbstractAs a consequence of globalization and migration, the number of children receiving literacy instruction in their second language (L2) is high and still increasing. Therefore, teachers need instruction methods that are effective in both L1 and L2 learners. Here, we investigate the effectiveness of a computerized training program combining phoneme perception, phonological awareness, and systematic phonics, in a sample of second-graders (N = 26) instructed in German as L2. Based on prior evidence concerning (1) literacy acquisition in L2 and (2) effects of literacy development on oral language abilities, we expected significant training effects on children’s literacy skills and vocabulary knowledge. The children of the training group worked through the program during school lessons, 20 min per day, for a period of 8 weeks. The controls continued to receive standard classroom instruction. German tests of phonological awareness, reading, spelling, and vocabulary were performed at three time points (pretest, immediate posttest, and follow-up after 9 weeks). Analyses confirmed that improvements in phonological awareness, spelling, and vocabulary between pretest and posttest were stronger in the training group when compared to the controls. For spelling and vocabulary, these effects were still significant at follow-up. Effect sizes were medium to high. For the reading measures, no group differences were found. In sum, the results yield further evidence for the effectiveness of phonics-based literacy instruction in L2 learners, and for the beneficial effects of basic literacy skills on novel word learning.
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Simon J, Balla VR. Electrophysiological correlates of the spatial temporal order judgment task. Biol Psychol 2020; 156:107947. [PMID: 32828914 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2020.107947] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2020] [Revised: 08/04/2020] [Accepted: 08/13/2020] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
Abstract
The study investigated auditory temporal processing on a tens of milliseconds scale that is the interval when two consecutive stimuli are processed either together or as distinct events. Distinctiveness is defined by one's ability to make correct order judgments of the presented sounds and is measured via the spatial temporal order judgement task (TOJ). The study aimed to identify electrophysiological indices of the TOJ performance. Tone pairs were presented with inter-stimulus intervals (ISI) varying between 25 and 75 ms while EEG was recorded. A pronounced amplitude change in the P2 interval was found between the event-related potential (ERP) of tone pairs having ISI = 55 and 65 ms, but it was a characteristic only of the group having poor behavioral thresholds. With the two groups combined, the amplitude change between these ERPs in the P2 interval showed a medium-size correlation with the behavioral threshold.
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Affiliation(s)
- Júlia Simon
- Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary; Department of Cognitive Science, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Budapest, Hungary.
| | - Viktória Roxána Balla
- Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
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Destoky F, Bertels J, Niesen M, Wens V, Vander Ghinst M, Leybaert J, Lallier M, Ince RAA, Gross J, De Tiège X, Bourguignon M. Cortical tracking of speech in noise accounts for reading strategies in children. PLoS Biol 2020; 18:e3000840. [PMID: 32845876 PMCID: PMC7478533 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3000840] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/29/2020] [Revised: 09/08/2020] [Accepted: 08/12/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans' propensity to acquire literacy relates to several factors, including the ability to understand speech in noise (SiN). Still, the nature of the relation between reading and SiN perception abilities remains poorly understood. Here, we dissect the interplay between (1) reading abilities, (2) classical behavioral predictors of reading (phonological awareness, phonological memory, and rapid automatized naming), and (3) electrophysiological markers of SiN perception in 99 elementary school children (26 with dyslexia). We demonstrate that, in typical readers, cortical representation of the phrasal content of SiN relates to the degree of development of the lexical (but not sublexical) reading strategy. In contrast, classical behavioral predictors of reading abilities and the ability to benefit from visual speech to represent the syllabic content of SiN account for global reading performance (i.e., speed and accuracy of lexical and sublexical reading). In individuals with dyslexia, we found preserved integration of visual speech information to optimize processing of syntactic information but not to sustain acoustic/phonemic processing. Finally, within children with dyslexia, measures of cortical representation of the phrasal content of SiN were negatively related to reading speed and positively related to the compromise between reading precision and reading speed, potentially owing to compensatory attentional mechanisms. These results clarify the nature of the relation between SiN perception and reading abilities in typical child readers and children with dyslexia and identify novel electrophysiological markers of emergent literacy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Florian Destoky
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI–ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Julie Bertels
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI–ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
- Consciousness, Cognition and Computation group, UNI–ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Maxime Niesen
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI–ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
- Service d'ORL et de chirurgie cervico-faciale, ULB-Hôpital Erasme, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Vincent Wens
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI–ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Functional Neuroimaging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Marc Vander Ghinst
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI–ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Jacqueline Leybaert
- Laboratoire Cognition Langage et Développement, UNI–ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Marie Lallier
- BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain
| | - Robin A. A. Ince
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
| | - Joachim Gross
- Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Institute for Biomagnetism and Biosignal analysis, University of Muenster, Muenster, Germany
| | - Xavier De Tiège
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI–ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
- Department of Functional Neuroimaging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
| | - Mathieu Bourguignon
- Laboratoire de Cartographie fonctionnelle du Cerveau, UNI–ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
- Laboratoire Cognition Langage et Développement, UNI–ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
- BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain
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