Abstract

An inability to process auditory information, especially speech, characterizes many children with learning and attention problems. These speech–sound perception problems may arise, at least in some cases, from faulty representation of the speech signal in central auditory centers. Our working hypothesis is that acoustic–phonetic disorders are abnormalities in preconscious neurophysiologic representation of sound structure by central auditory pathway neurons and is reflected by subcortical and cortical aggregate neural responses. Brainstem and cortical potentials (ABR, FFR, cortical P1/N1/N2, MMN) reflect activity from different anatomic sources and represent different aspects of auditory function. An obvious characteristic distinguishing these responses is their development time course. Results indicate that while normal and learning impaired children do not differ in auditory system development per se, they develop different listening strategies which affect the neural representation of sound structure along the auditory pathway. [Work supported by NIH RO1 DC 01510.]

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