Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Cortex. 2010 Nov-Dec;46(10):1362-76. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2010.06.003. Epub 2010 Jun 25.
The role played by an auditory-processing deficit in dyslexia has been debated for several decades. In a longitudinal study using brain event-related potentials (ERPs) we investigated 1) whether dyslexic children with familial risk background would show atypical pitch processing from birth and 2) how these newborn ERPs later relate to these same children's pre-reading cognitive skills and literacy outcomes. Auditory ERPs were measured at birth for tones varying in pitch and presented in an oddball paradigm (1100 Hz, 12%, and 1000 Hz, 88%). The brain responses of the typically reading control group children (TRC group, N=25) showed clear differentiation between the frequencies, while those of the group of reading disability with familial risk (RDFR, 8 children) and the group of typical readers with familial risk (TRFR, 14 children) did not differentiate between the tones. The ERPs of the latter two groups differed from those of the TRC group. However, the two risk groups also showed a differential hemispheric ERP pattern. Furthermore, newborn ERPs reflecting passive change detection were associated with phonological skills and letter knowledge prior to school age and with phoneme duration perception, reading speed (RS) and spelling accuracy in the 2nd grade of school. The early obligatory response was associated with more general pre-school language skills, as well as with RS and reading accuracy (RA). Results suggest that a proportion of dyslexic readers with familial risk background are affected by atypical auditory processing. This is already present at birth and also relates to pre-reading phonological processing and speech perception. These early differences in auditory processing could later affect phonological representations and reading development. However, atypical auditory processing is unlikely to suffice as a sole explanation for dyslexia but rather as one risk factor, dependent on the genetic profile of the child.
听觉处理缺陷在阅读障碍中的作用已经争论了几十年。在一项使用脑事件相关电位（ERP）的纵向研究中，我们调查了 1）是否具有家族风险背景的阅读障碍儿童从出生起就会表现出异常的音高处理，以及 2）这些新生儿 ERP 后来如何与这些相同儿童的阅读前认知技能和读写能力结果相关。在出生时使用脑事件相关电位（ERP）测量了音调变化的听觉 ERP，呈现在一种奇数范式中（1100 Hz，12％和 1000 Hz，88％）。通常阅读的对照组儿童（TRC 组，N=25）的脑反应清楚地区分了频率，而阅读障碍伴家族风险（RDFR，8 名儿童）和具有家族风险的典型阅读者（TRFR，14 名儿童）的脑反应则不能区分音高。后两组的 ERP 与 TRC 组不同。然而，这两个风险组也表现出不同的半球 ERP 模式。此外，反映被动变化检测的新生儿 ERP 与学前年龄前的语音技能和字母知识以及音素持续感知、阅读速度（RS）和 2 年级拼写准确性相关。早期的强制性反应与更一般的学前语言技能以及 RS 和阅读准确性（RA）相关。结果表明，具有家族风险背景的一部分阅读障碍者受到异常听觉处理的影响。这种情况从出生就已经存在，也与阅读前的语音处理和语音感知有关。听觉处理的这些早期差异可能会影响语音表达和阅读发展。然而，异常的听觉处理不太可能作为阅读障碍的唯一解释，而是作为一个风险因素，取决于儿童的遗传特征。
