Learning disability subtypes and the effects of auditory and visual priming on visual event-related potentials to words.

Three learning-disability (LD) subtype groups and a normal control group of children were compared in their visual event-related potentials (ERPs) to primed and unprimed words. The LD subtypes were defined by deficient performance on tests of arithmetic (Group A), reading and spelling (Group RS), or both (Group RSA). The primed words were preceded by pictures or spoken words having a related meaning, while unprimed words were preceded by non-associated pictures or spoken words. For normal controls, N450 amplitude was greater to unprimed words than to words primed by pictures and spoken words. For Group A, N450 amplitude was reduced by spoken-word primes, but not by picture primes, an effect that demonstrates a deficit in processing visual-spatial information. For Group RS and Group RSA, neither picture nor spoken-word primes reduced N450 amplitude. These effects can be understood in terms of deficiencies in processing auditory-verbal information. Normal controls displayed a greater left- than right-hemispheric asymmetry in frontal N450 amplitude to unprimed words, an effect that is consistent with the association of skilled reading with hemispheric specialization. This asymmetry was absent in the ERPs of all the LD subtypes. The distinct ERP effects for the groups endorses the value of defining LD subtypes on the basis of patterns of deficits in arithmetic and reading and spelling.