Neural Discrimination of Temporal Patterns-Associations to Dyslexia Risk, Language Abilities, and Music Activities.

This study investigated the ability of auditory and visual temporal processing measured before school entry (mean age 5.36 years) to predict early reading development in an unselected sample of children. There were 142 children at the first phase (Preschool), 125 at the second phase 6 - 8 months later (early Grade 1; mean age 5.94 years), and 105 at the third phase12 months later (Grade 2; mean age 6.94 years). There were similar numbers of males and females. Visual and auditory temporal order judgement (TOJ) and Temporal Dot accuracy (rapid visual sequencing task) measured at Preschool explained a significant percentage of the variance in letter identification (an important pre-reading skill) measured concurrently. These measures also predicted a significant percentage of the variance in letter and word identification (word reading accuracy) and reading rate (fluency) measured in early Grade 1, even after controlling for the effects of age, environment, memory, attentional vigilance, non-verbal ability, and speech and language problems. They also significantly discriminated between groups of children at Grade 1 who could and could not use phonological decoding to read non-words. By Grade 2, these Preschool measures accounted for significant variance in word reading accuracy and fluency and in non-word decoding. Only Preschool auditory temporal processing accounted for significant unique variance in the reading measures at Preschool or Grade 1, but by Grade 2, visual temporal processing (Temporal Dot) also accounted for significant unique variance. Temporal Dot accuracy also explained unique variance in the rate of growth in these reading measures across this period. These changes in predictive ability by the auditory and visual temporal processing measures were interpreted as reflecting developmental changes in their roles in reading as reading develops. Auditory temporal processing was important in early pre-reading and reading and remained important throughout. Visual temporal processing only became important in the later phase, possibly because of increasing need to analyse letter sequences. Preschool temporal and phonological processing measures accounted for approximately equal percentages of variance in the reading measures at Preschool and Grade 1, but by Grade 2, the Preschool phonological processing measures accounted for significantly more variance in all reading measures, except Pseudohomophone Choice (orthographic processing). Very little of the variance that was explained in the reading measures was common to temporal and phonological processing. The variance that each uniquely explained in reading was more important than the variance they explained in common. Therefore, utilising both temporal and phonological processing predictors optimised prediction of early reading skills. The study also showed there was significant linear development occurring in temporal processing from Preschool to Grade 2. The correlations of scores on the temporal measures from Preschool to Grade 1 were moderate. The relative position of children within the distribution on these skills showed moderate stability over the short-term, but less stability over the long-term. The majority of children who fell in the bottom quartile on the temporal and phonological processing measures at Preschool remained in the bottom half of the distribution on those measures by Grade 2. These children may represent those who are at most risk for reading difficulties. Letter Word Identification showed high stability from Preschool to Grade 2. There was little difference in the percentage of variance explained in subsequent reading between temporal processing measures obtained at Preschool or Grade 1. However, performance on the Visual temporal order judgement task was more likely to account for significant unique variance in reading when measured after school entry than before. This was consistent with the expected developmental changes in reading. When measured after school-entry, phonological processing measures accounted for greater percentages of variance in the reading measures than when measured before. There were also developmental changes in which phonological processing measures were important predictors of reading skills. When measured at Grade 1, rhyme and alliteration detection and phonemic segmentation were the most important predictors. However, when measured at Grade 2, performance on the Rhyme and Alliteration task had reached ceiling, so would no longer be a useful predictor of later reading. These results were consistent with developmental models of reading and of phonological processing. The results provided support for a causal role of temporal processing in reading development. They also showed that measures of visual and auditory temporal processing obtained close to school-entry would be a useful addition to predicting risk of early reading difficulties. However, additional work is needed to determine the most suitable temporal processing measures for this younger age group.

Temporal auditory processing at 17 months of age is associated with preliterate language comprehension and later word reading fluency: An ERP study

What is the Role of Audition in Literacy?

Auditory processing and speech perception in children with specific language impairment: Relations with oral language and literacy skills

Neural correlates of temporal auditory processing in developmental dyslexia during German vowel length discrimination: An fMRI study

Event Abstract Back to Event Brain responses to spectral and temporal auditory processing in typically developing 5-6 - years old children Leena Ervast1*, Paavo H. Leppänen2, Kaisu Heinänen1, Swantje Zachau1, Kalervo Suominen3, Mirja Luotonen3 and Pirjo Korpilahti4 1 University of Oulu, France 2 University of Jyväskylä, Finland 3 Oulu University Hospital, Finland 4 University of Turku, Finland The ability of the brain to recognize spectral and rapid temporal acoustic cues is important for phonetic perception and thus for successful language development. Here we studied how typically developing Finnish speaking children process non-verbal spectral and temporal acoustic stimuli with speech like elements. Twelve typically developing 5 - 6–year old children participated in the study. Auditory processing skills were assessed by using brain event-related potentials (ERPs). Three sine tone stimuli were presented in a passive oddball/ MMN paradigm. The standard stimulus (80 %) was a tone pair with a 150 ms within-pair interval (WPI), the spectral deviant stimulus had a pitch change in the 2nd tone, and the temporal deviant stimulus had a rapid rhythmic change including a third tone (all parts with 50 ms WPIs). Temporal principal component analysis (tPCA) was used to extract ERP responses of interest. The 2nd tone with the pitch change in the spectral deviant stimulus generated fronto-central negative response at peaking at 176 ms (from the 2nd tone onset) with a reversed polarity below Sylvian fissure. This response overlapped with N250 for the standard stimulus but emerged earlier, suggesting mismatch negativity (MMN) for spectral change in temporally complex stimuli in pre-school aged children at about the same time window as in adults. The temporal deviant stimulus generated a response pattern reflecting the temporal structure of the stimuli. The topographical distribution was similar to that of the response for spectral change but the amplitude was lower, suggesting obligatory stimulus dependent temporal processing in children. Keywords: Children, Language Conference: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Poster Sessions: Neural Bases of Language Citation: Ervast L, Leppänen PH, Heinänen K, Zachau S, Suominen K, Luotonen M and Korpilahti P (2011). Brain responses to spectral and temporal auditory processing in typically developing 5-6 - years old children. Conference Abstract: XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI). doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00507 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 22 Nov 2011; Published Online: 28 Nov 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Leena Ervast, University of Oulu, Oulu, France, leena.ervast@oulu.fi Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Leena Ervast Paavo H Leppänen Kaisu Heinänen Swantje Zachau Kalervo Suominen Mirja Luotonen Pirjo Korpilahti Google Leena Ervast Paavo H Leppänen Kaisu Heinänen Swantje Zachau Kalervo Suominen Mirja Luotonen Pirjo Korpilahti Google Scholar Leena Ervast Paavo H Leppänen Kaisu Heinänen Swantje Zachau Kalervo Suominen Mirja Luotonen Pirjo Korpilahti PubMed Leena Ervast Paavo H Leppänen Kaisu Heinänen Swantje Zachau Kalervo Suominen Mirja Luotonen Pirjo Korpilahti Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.

By measuring behavioural performance and event-related potentials (ERPs) this study investigated the extent to which Chinese school children's reading development is influenced by their skills in auditory, speech, and temporal processing. In Experiment 1, 102 normal school children's performance in pure tone temporal order judgment, tone frequency discrimination, temporal interval discrimination and composite tone pattern discrimination was measured. Results showed that children's auditory processing skills correlated significantly with their reading fluency, phonological awareness, word naming latency, and the number of Chinese characters learned. Regression analyses found that tone temporal order judgment, temporal interval discrimination and composite tone pattern discrimination could account for 32% of variance in phonological awareness. Controlling for the effect of phonological awareness, auditory processing measures still contributed significantly to variance in reading fluency and character naming. In Experiment 2, mismatch negativities (MMN) in event-related brain potentials were recorded from dyslexic children and the matched normal children, while these children listened passively to Chinese syllables and auditory stimuli composed of pure tones. The two groups of children did not differ in MMN to stimuli deviated in pure tone frequency and Chinese lexical tones. But dyslexic children showed smaller MMN to stimuli deviated in initial consonants or vowels of Chinese syllables and to stimuli deviated in temporal information of composite tone patterns. These results suggested that Chinese dyslexic children have deficits in auditory temporal processing as well as in linguistic processing and that auditory and temporal processing is possibly as important to reading development of children in a logographic writing system as in an alphabetic system.

BackgroundAutism spectrum disorders (ASD) encompass a wide array of debilitating symptoms, including sensory dysfunction and delayed language development. Auditory temporal processing is crucial for speech perception and language development. Abnormal development of temporal processing may account for the language impairments associated with ASD. Very little is known about the development of temporal processing in any animal model of ASD.MethodsIn the current study, we quantify auditory temporal processing throughout development in the Fmr1 knock-out (KO) mouse model of Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), a leading genetic cause of intellectual disability and ASD-associated behaviors. Using epidural electrodes in awake and freely moving wildtype (WT) and KO mice, we recorded auditory event related potentials (ERP) and auditory temporal processing with a gap-in-noise auditory steady state response (gap-ASSR) paradigm. Mice were recorded at three different ages in a cross sectional design: postnatal (p)21, p30 and p60. Recordings were obtained from both auditory and frontal cortices. The gap-ASSR requires underlying neural generators to synchronize responses to gaps of different widths embedded in noise, providing an objective measure of temporal processing across genotypes and age groups.ResultsWe present evidence that the frontal, but not auditory, cortex shows significant temporal processing deficits at p21 and p30, with poor ability to phase lock to rapid gaps in noise. Temporal processing was similar in both genotypes in adult mice. ERP amplitudes were larger in Fmr1 KO mice in both auditory and frontal cortex, consistent with ERP data in humans with FXS.ConclusionsThese data indicate cortical region-specific delays in temporal processing development in Fmr1 KO mice. Developmental delays in the ability of frontal cortex to follow rapid changes in sounds may shape language delays in FXS, and more broadly in ASD.

Abnormal pattern of cortical speech feature discrimination in 6-year-old children at risk for dyslexia

Auditory neural impairment is a key clinical feature of Friedreich’s Ataxia (FRDA). We aimed to characterize the phenotypical spectrum of the auditory impairment in FRDA in order to facilitate early identification and timely management of auditory impairment in FRDA patients and to explore the relationship between the severity of auditory impairment with genetic variables (the expansion size of GAA trinucleotide repeats, GAA1 and GAA2), when controlled for variables such as disease duration, severity of the disease and cognitive status. Twenty-seven patients with genetically confirmed FRDA underwent baseline audiological assessment (pure-tone audiometry, otoacoustic emissions, auditory brainstem response). Twenty of these patients had additional psychophysical auditory processing evaluation including an auditory temporal processing test (gaps in noise test) and a binaural speech perception test that assesses spatial processing (Listening in Spatialized Noise-Sentences Test). Auditory spatial and auditory temporal processing ability were significantly associated with the repeat length of GAA1. Patients with GAA1 greater than 500 repeats had more severe auditory temporal and spatial processing deficits, leading to poorer speech perception. Furthermore, the spatial processing ability was strongly correlated with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) score. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate an association between genotype and auditory spatial processing phenotype in patients with FRDA. Auditory temporal processing, neural sound conduction, spatial processing and speech perception were more severely affected in patients with GAA1 greater than 500 repeats. The results of our study may indicate that auditory deprivation plays a role in the development of mild cognitive impairment in FRDA patients.

BackgroundAutism spectrum disorder (ASD) is currently diagnosed in approximately 1 in 44 children in the United States, based on a wide array of symptoms, including sensory dysfunction and abnormal language development. Boys are diagnosed ~ 3.8 times more frequently than girls. Auditory temporal processing is crucial for speech recognition and language development. Abnormal development of temporal processing may account for ASD language impairments. Sex differences in the development of temporal processing may underlie the differences in language outcomes in male and female children with ASD. To understand mechanisms of potential sex differences in temporal processing requires a preclinical model. However, there are no studies that have addressed sex differences in temporal processing across development in any animal model of ASD.MethodsTo fill this major gap, we compared the development of auditory temporal processing in male and female wildtype (WT) and Fmr1 knock-out (KO) mice, a model of Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), a leading genetic cause of ASD-associated behaviors. Using epidural screw electrodes, we recorded auditory event related potentials (ERP) and auditory temporal processing with a gap-in-noise auditory steady state response (ASSR) paradigm at young (postnatal (p)21 and p30) and adult (p60) ages from both auditory and frontal cortices of awake, freely moving mice.ResultsThe results show that ERP amplitudes were enhanced in both sexes of Fmr1 KO mice across development compared to WT counterparts, with greater enhancement in adult female than adult male KO mice. Gap-ASSR deficits were seen in the frontal, but not auditory, cortex in early development (p21) in female KO mice. Unlike male KO mice, female KO mice show WT-like temporal processing at p30. There were no temporal processing deficits in the adult mice of both sexes.ConclusionsThese results show a sex difference in the developmental trajectories of temporal processing and hypersensitive responses in Fmr1 KO mice. Male KO mice show slower maturation of temporal processing than females. Female KO mice show stronger hypersensitive responses than males later in development. The differences in maturation rates of temporal processing and hypersensitive responses during various critical periods of development may lead to sex differences in language function, arousal and anxiety in FXS.

BackgroundShared storybook reading is an important context for language learning and often constitutes young children's first encounter with the printed word. The quality of early shared reading interactions is a known predictor of language and reading development, but few studies have examined these interactions in children at family risk of dyslexia.MethodsThis exploratory study describes the quality of shared storybook reading between mothers and their 3‐ to 4‐year‐old children at family risk of dyslexia (FR; n = 18) in comparison with dyads with no known risk (no‐FR; n = 13). Mother–child interactions while sharing a familiar and an unfamiliar storybook were coded for type of extra‐textual talk (meaning‐related talk at the concrete and abstract levels; print‐related talk) and affective quality. Maternal and child language and literacy skills were considered as potential correlates of shared reading quality.ResultsThe linguistic and affective quality of shared reading was broadly comparable across FR and no‐FR dyads, particularly when sharing a book they knew well, with large within‐group variation. Mothers contributed more concrete meaning‐related talk when introducing an unfamiliar book to their children; children contributed more extra‐textual talk overall when sharing a familiar book. Maternal language, but not reading, skills were related to the linguistic quality of shared reading. The affective quality of reading interactions was rated more highly in dyads where mothers and children had stronger language skills.ConclusionsThese results suggest that the quality of shared reading does not vary systematically as a function of children's risk of dyslexia but is related to maternal language skills. This finding needs to be replicated in a larger sample in order to better understand the risk and protective factors associated with dyslexia.Highlights What is already known about this topic The quality of extra‐textual talk during shared reading between parents and preschoolers predicts later language and literacy outcomes in typically developing children.The affective quality of early shared reading predicts children's motivation to read independently in later childhood.Children at family risk of dyslexia are more likely than their peers with no family risk to have difficulty learning to read and may show weaknesses in oral language skills. What this paper adds The linguistic and affective quality of shared reading between mothers and preschool children is broadly similar when children are at family risk of dyslexia compared with no family risk.The type and quantity of extra‐textual talk contributed by mothers and children appears to differ according to the familiarity of the storybook, but replication of the findings in a larger sample is required.The linguistic and affective quality of shared reading is related to maternal language skills. Implications for theory, policy or practice Shared storybook reading offers rich language learning opportunities for children at family risk of dyslexia.Maternal language skills may be an important determinant of the interactional quality of shared reading.The linguistic and affective quality of shared reading is not clearly associated with maternal reading difficulties.

In older adults, difficulties processing complex auditory scenes, such as speech comprehension in noisy environments, might be due to a specific impairment of temporal processing at early, automatic processing stages involving auditory sensory memory (ASM). Even though age effects on auditory temporal processing have been well-documented, there is a paucity of research on how ASM processing of more complex tone-patterns is altered by age. In the current study, age effects on ASM processing of temporal and frequency aspects of two-tone patterns were investigated using a passive listening protocol. The P1 component, the mismatch negativity (MMN) and the P3a component of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to tone frequency and temporal pattern deviants were recorded in younger and older adults as a measure of auditory event detection, ASM processing, and attention switching, respectively. MMN was elicited with smaller amplitude to both frequency and temporal deviants in older adults. Furthermore, P3a was elicited only in the younger adults. In conclusion, the smaller MMN amplitude indicates that automatic processing of both frequency and temporal aspects of two-tone patterns is impaired in older adults. The failure to initiate an attention switch, suggested by the absence of P3a, indicates that impaired ASM processing of patterns may lead to less distractibility in older adults. Our results suggest age-related changes in ASM processing of patterns that cannot be explained by an inhibitory deficit.

A major issue in the rehabilitation of children with cochlear implants (CIs) is unexplained variance in their language skills, where many of them lag behind children with normal hearing (NH). Here, we assess links between generative language skills and the perception of prosodic stress, and with musical and parental activities in children with CIs and NH. Understanding these links is expected to guide future research and toward supporting language development in children with a CI. Twenty-one unilaterally and early-implanted children and 31 children with NH, aged 5 to 13, were classified as musically active or nonactive by a questionnaire recording regularity of musical activities, in particular singing, and reading and other activities shared with parents. Perception of word and sentence stress, performance in word finding, verbal intelligence (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC) vocabulary), and phonological awareness (production of rhymes) were measured in all children. Comparisons between children with a CI and NH were made against a subset of 21 of the children with NH who were matched to children with CIs by age, gender, socioeconomic background, and musical activity. Regression analyses, run separately for children with CIs and NH, assessed how much variance in each language task was shared with each of prosodic perception, the child's own music activity, and activities with parents, including singing and reading. All statistical analyses were conducted both with and without control for age and maternal education. Musically active children with CIs performed similarly to NH controls in all language tasks, while those who were not musically active performed more poorly. Only musically nonactive children with CIs made more phonological and semantic errors in word finding than NH controls, and word finding correlated with other language skills. Regression analysis results for word finding and VIQ were similar for children with CIs and NH. These language skills shared considerable variance with the perception of prosodic stress and musical activities. When age and maternal education were controlled for, strong links remained between perception of prosodic stress and VIQ (shared variance: CI, 32%/NH, 16%) and between musical activities and word finding (shared variance: CI, 53%/NH, 20%). Links were always stronger for children with CIs, for whom better phonological awareness was also linked to improved stress perception and more musical activity, and parental activities altogether shared significantly variance with word finding and VIQ. For children with CIs and NH, better perception of prosodic stress and musical activities with singing are associated with improved generative language skills. In addition, for children with CIs, parental singing has a stronger positive association to word finding and VIQ than parental reading. These results cannot address causality, but they suggest that good perception of prosodic stress, musical activities involving singing, and parental singing and reading may all be beneficial for word finding and other generative language skills in implanted children.

The research described in this article uses findings from longitudinal studies involving electrophysiological and behavioral assessments of infants and young children. Event-Related Potentials (ERPs) offer a basis for understanding how areas of the brain react to specific stimuli that are thought to play a role in the development of language and reading abilities. In this paper, we review a series of studies that identify markers in the ERPs that are related to differences in the development of language and reading skills. In addition, there is compelling evidence supporting the role of the home environment and other variables that influence the intellectual level of the child’s environment (e.g., SES, parental IQ, parenting practices, family activities) in the development of language and reading in preschool and school-aged children. In this paper, measures of these environmental variables are linked with predictions of language and reading skill development. Efforts to integrate information about the influence of the environment on brain responses to better understand the development of early language and reading skills are described.