Chiang Chun-Han, Hämäläinen Jarmo, Xu Weiyong, Wang Hsiao-Lan
Department of Special Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.
Front Psychol. 2020 Jun 5;11:1013. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01013. eCollection 2020.
The perception of the musical rhythm has been suggested as one of the predicting factors for reading abilities. Several studies have demonstrated that children with reading difficulties (RD) show reduced neural sensitivity in musical rhythm perception. Despite this prior evidence, the association between music and reading in Chinese is still controversial. In the present study, we sought to answer the question of whether the musical rhythm perception of Chinese children with RD is intact or not, providing further clues on how reading and music might be interlinked across languages. Oddball paradigm was adapted for testing the difference of musical rhythm perception, including predictable and unpredictable omission, in elementary school children with RD and typically developing age-controlled children with magnetoencephalography (MEG). We used the cluster-based permutation tests to examine the statistical difference in neural responses. The event-related field (ERF) components, mismatch negativity (MMNm) and P3a(m), were elicited by the rhythmical patterns with omitted strong beats. Specifically, differential P3a(m) components were found smaller in children with RD when comparing the rhythmical patterns between predictable and unpredicted omission patterns. The results showed that brain responses to the omission in the strong beat of an unpredicted rhythmic pattern were significantly smaller in Chinese children with RD. This indicated that children with RD may be impaired in the auditory sensitivity of rhythmic beats. This also suggests that children with reading difficulties may have atypical neural representations of rhythm that could be one of the underlying factors in dysfluent reading development.
音乐节奏感知已被认为是阅读能力的预测因素之一。多项研究表明，有阅读困难（RD）的儿童在音乐节奏感知方面表现出神经敏感性降低。尽管有这些先前的证据，但音乐与中文阅读之间的关联仍存在争议。在本研究中，我们试图回答患有RD的中国儿童的音乐节奏感知是否完好无损的问题，为阅读和音乐如何跨语言相互联系提供进一步线索。采用Oddball范式，通过脑磁图（MEG）测试患有RD的小学生和年龄匹配的正常发育儿童在音乐节奏感知方面的差异，包括可预测和不可预测的省略。我们使用基于聚类的置换检验来检验神经反应的统计差异。由省略强拍的节奏模式引发事件相关场（ERF）成分，即失配负波（MMNm）和P3a（m）。具体而言，在比较可预测和不可预测省略模式的节奏模式时，发现患有RD的儿童的差异P3a（m）成分较小。结果表明，患有RD的中国儿童对不可预测节奏模式中强拍省略的脑反应明显较小。这表明患有RD的儿童在节奏节拍的听觉敏感性方面可能受损。这也表明，有阅读困难的儿童可能具有非典型的节奏神经表征，这可能是阅读不流畅发展的潜在因素之一。
