Does Attentional Cueing Affect Dichotic Listening Performance in Children?

Network dynamics in dyslexia: Review and implications for remediation

Extant neurobiological theories of dyslexia appear fractional in focusing on isolated brain regions, mechanisms, and functional pathways. A synthesis of current research shows support for an Interactive Specialization (IS) model of dyslexia involving the dysfunctional orchestration of a widely-distributed, attentionally-controlled, hierarchical, and interhemispheric circuit of intercommunicating neuronal networks. This circuitry is comprised principally of the frontostriatal-parietal cognitive control system of networks, the posterior corpus callosum, and the left arcuate fasciculus. During development, the coalescence of these functionally specialized regions, acting together, may be essential to preventing the core phonemic and phonological processing deficits defining the dyslexic phenotype. Research demonstrating an association of each with processing phonology presents the foundational outline for a comprehensive, integrative theory of dyslexia and suggests the importance of inclusive remedial efforts aimed at promoting interactions among all three networking territories.

Auditory orienting of attention: Effects of cues and verbal workload with children and adults

The use of tone cues has an improving effect on the auditory orienting of attention for children as for adults. Verbal cues, on the contrary, do not seem to orient attention as efficiently before the age of 9 years. However, several studies have reported inconsistent effects of orienting attention on ear asymmetries. Multiple factors are questioned, such as the role of verbal workload. Indeed, the semantic nature of the dichotic pairs and their load of processing may explain orienting of attention performance. Thus, by controlling for the role of verbal workload, the present experiment aimed to evaluate the development of capacities for the auditory orienting of attention. Right-handed, 6- to 12-year-olds and adults were recruited to complete either a tone cue or a verbal cue dichotic listening task in the identification of familiar words or nonsense words. A factorial design analysis of variance showed a significant right-ear advantage for all the participants and for all the types of stimuli. A major developmental effect was observed in which verbal cues played an important role: they allowed the 6- to 8-year-olds to improve their performance of identification in the left ear. These effects were taken as evidence of the implication of top-down processes in cognitive flexibility across development.

Children below 9 years use both verbal cues and lateralized cues to orient their attention in an emotional dichotic listening task

The current study aimed to demonstrate that children below 9 years of age efficiently orient their auditory attention with both verbal cues and lateralized cues to identify emotional stimuli. The use of emotional stimuli is an optimal condition according to the assumption that a multi-component task calling on different resources from the two cerebral hemispheres is easier than a multi-component task requiring resources from the same hemisphere. A sample of 103 right-handed children from 7 to 12 years of age was required to identify emotional speech made up of pseudowords preceded by a binaural verbal cue or by a lateralized tone cue. As expected, we observed better performance for the skilled ear (i.e., the left ear for emotional processing) and an improving effect of verbal cues. According to our success criterion (mean correct report rates significantly different from chance), an efficient control of orienting attention was observed in all groups of children. This means that children from 7 to 8 years of age were able to efficiently orient their attention to identify emotional stimuli. Results are discussed in relation to the hemispheric lateralization of emotions.