Pseudoword Repetition Research Articles

Action video games normalise the phonemic awareness in pre-readers at risk for developmental dyslexia

Action video-games (AVGs) could improve reading efficiency, enhancing not only visual attention but also phonological processing. Here we tested the AVG effects upon three consolidated language-based predictors of reading development in a sample of 79 pre-readers at-risk and 41 non-at-risk for developmental dyslexia. At-risk children were impaired in either phonemic awareness (i.e., phoneme discrimination task), phonological working memory (i.e., pseudoword repetition task) or rapid automatized naming (i.e., RAN of colours task). At-risk children were assigned to different groups by using an unequal allocation randomization: (1) AVG (n = 43), (2) Serious Non-Action Video Game (n = 11), (3) treatment-as-usual (i.e., speech therapy, n = 11), and (4) waiting list (n = 14). Pre- and post-training comparisons show that only phonemic awareness has a significantly higher improvement in the AVG group compared to the waiting list, the non-AVG, and the treatment-as-usual groups, as well as the combined active groups (n = 22). This cross-modal plastic change: (i) leads to a recovery in phonemic awareness when compared to the not-at-risk pre-readers; (ii) is present in more than 80% of AVG at-risk pre-readers, and; (iii) is maintained at a 6-months follow-up. The present findings indicate that this specific multisensory attentional training positively affects how phonemic awareness develops in pre-readers at risk for developmental dyslexia, paving the way for innovative prevention programs.

Development of the Digital Speech Assessment Instrument.

This study aimed to develop a Digital Speech Assessment Instrument to evaluate the phonological and motor speech skills of Brazilian Portuguese-speaking children and adolescents through six tasks: (a) word naming, (b) word imitation, (c) pseudoword imitation, (d) word repetition, (e) pseudoword repetition, and (f) diadochokinesis. The assessment instrument was developed and validated in a seven-step process, beginning with stimulus selection and ending with Pilot Study 1 (involving children and adolescents with typical speech development) and Pilot Study 2 (involving children and adolescents with speech sound disorders [SSDs]). Participants of the study included expert and nonexpert judges, children, and adolescents. The Digital Speech Assessment Instrument contains 91 real words (61 in the naming task, 51 in the imitation task, and five in the repetition task), 26 pseudowords (26 in the imitation task and four in the repetition task), and six stimuli for diadochokinesis. The test contains stimuli in the form of images as well as audio and video recordings and allows for the analysis and storage of participant data in a virtual database. This study described the development of the Digital Speech Assessment Instrument, available in Brazilian Portuguese for the evaluation of several aspects of speech production (including word and pseudoword naming, imitation, and repetition and diadochokinesis). The test was developed for children aged 2;0 (years;months) to 17;11 and is administered fully online. In the future, the instrument can be used to provide a timely and accurate diagnosis of SSDs.

Degeneracy in the neurological model of auditory speech repetition

Both classic and contemporary models of auditory word repetition involve at least four left hemisphere regions: primary auditory cortex for processing sounds; pSTS (within Wernicke’s area) for processing auditory images of speech; pOp (within Broca’s area) for processing motor images of speech; and primary motor cortex for overt speech articulation. Previous functional-MRI (fMRI) studies confirm that auditory repetition activates these regions, in addition to many others. Crucially, however, contemporary models do not specify how regions interact and drive each other during auditory repetition. Here, we used dynamic causal modelling, to test the functional interplay among the four core brain regions during single auditory word and pseudoword repetition. Our analysis is grounded in the principle of degeneracy—i.e., many-to-one structure-function relationships—where multiple neural pathways can execute the same function. Contrary to expectation, we found that, for both word and pseudoword repetition, (i) the effective connectivity between pSTS and pOp was predominantly bidirectional and inhibitory; (ii) activity in the motor cortex could be driven by either pSTS or pOp; and (iii) the latter varied both within and between individuals. These results suggest that different neural pathways can support auditory speech repetition. This degeneracy may explain resilience to functional loss after brain damage.

Descriptive discourse in fluent aphasia: The predictive role of attention, phonology, lexical retrieval and semantics

AimsTo study the relationship between cognitive and linguistic skills (as measured through standardized tasks) over spontaneous speech elicited during a picture description task. Methods & procedures21 controls and 19 people with fluent aphasia matched by age and sex were evaluated using transcripts made from a picture description task coded using the CHAT format and analyzed using Computerized Language Analysis (CLAN). Indices obtained from the speech samples contained measures of lexical quantity and diversity, morphosyntactic complexity, informativeness, and speech fluency, along with different kinds of speech errors. We studied their correlations with attentional measures from Conners’ Continuous Performance Test and with standardized measures of naming, pseudoword repetition and semantic non-verbal association. We further used stepwise linear regression to analyze the predictive value of standardized linguistic and cognitive skills over discursive indices. Outcomes & resultsContrary to our initial hypothesis, there were no significant correlations between attentional scores and discourse variables in aphasic participants. Moreover, semantic association, along with naming, was the measure more related with discourse performance in people with fluent aphasia, but cognitive and linguistic standardized measures had overall little predictive power on most discourse indices. In the control group, there was a certain association of naming skills and attentional reaction time with discourse variables, but their predictive power was also low. Conclusions & implicationsThe current results do not support a strong relationship between basic attentional skills and performance in descriptive discourse in fluent aphasia. Although some of the standardized tasks seem to bear some relationship with spontaneous speech, there is a high amount of interindividual variability in discourse that is not captured by classical cognitive tasks routinely used in assessment. Further work on the determinants of discourse performance in aphasia and on the clinical application of discourse analysis is warranted.

The syllable as a fundamental sub-lexical unit in phonological paraphasias: evidence from Spanish-speaking aphasic patients

ABSTRACT Background Considering that the syllable is a well-defined unit in the Spanish language, we assume that it could be analyzed at the core of phonological paraphasias. Aims Identify if the characteristics of the Spanish syllable system are reflected in the production of phonological errors among Spanish-speaking aphasic patients. Methods & Procedures Twenty-four Spanish-speaking aphasic patients with different aetiology, severity, and type of aphasia participated in the study. We designed Word and Pseudoword Repetition Tasks controlling for stimuli length, syllable structure frequency, and syllable position. Outcomes & Results The production of paraphasias evidences an effect of syllable complexity and syllable frequency, since the CV syllable structure which is the simplest but also the most common one in Spanish, was more resistant to errors. Stimulus length and stimuli lexicality effects were evident since monosyllabic stimuli and words (opposed to pseudowords) triggered fewer errors, respectively. Also, we observed an interaction of length/lexicality, where polysyllabic pseudowords were related to a higher number of errors. Finally, results revealed a strong correlation between the relative frequency of syllable structures in Spanish and the percentage of syllable structures in phonemic paraphasias. Conclusions The repetition of words and pseudowords by these Spanish-speaking aphasic patients confirm that their phonological errors are related to the syllabic system of the Spanish language. This finding has implications when assessing Spanish-speaking aphasic patients.

Dissociations in white matter tracts and neuropsychological findings in a 17 years old patient with Subacute sclerosing panencephalitis

The present multimodal diffusion tensor imaging and neuropsychological study investigated the integrity of the white matter fascicles in a 17 years-old patient diagnosed with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE).A brief neuropsychological testing showed that word and pseudoword repetition, naming, semantic and phonological fluency, long-term memory, working memory were impaired.A review of the literature on Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) evidenced that, studies investigating the integrity of white matter in this condition being a rare disease, are very few. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were found between the fractional anisotropy (FA) values of the controls and the patient in the Superior Longitudinal fasciculus, the Inferior Longitudinal Fasciculus, the Inferior Fronto-Occipital Fasciculus, the Uncinate Fasciculus, and the Arcuate Fasciculus with lower values in the patient. No differences were found for the corticospinal tract. The number of streamlines was significantly lower in the patient, compared to controls, for the left Superior Longitudinal fasciculus, and for the left Uncinate fasciculus while for all the other fascicles, the number did not significantly differ from controls. DTI results were consistent with the patient’s cognitive profile showing impairments at repetition, at tasks tapping lexical-semantics and long-term memory / retrieval. Diffusion tensor imaging results indicate that there were diffuse alterations of the degree of anisotropic diffusion along the white matter tracts distributed in posterior-anterior direction. Differently, a selective sparing of this measure was observed along the white matter tract distributed in inferior-superior direction (the corticospinal fascicle).

Dissociating the functional roles of arcuate fasciculus subtracts in speech production.

Recent tractography and microdissection studies have shown that the left arcuate fasciculus (AF)-a fiber tract thought to be crucial for speech production-consists of a minimum of 2 subtracts directly connecting the temporal and frontal cortex. These subtracts link the posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG) to the inferior frontal gyrus. Although they have been hypothesized to mediate different functions in speech production, direct evidence for this hypothesis is lacking. To functionally segregate the 2 AF segments, we combined functional magnetic resonance imaging with diffusion-weighted imaging and probabilistic tractography using 2 prototypical speech production tasks, namely spoken pseudoword repetition (tapping sublexical phonological mapping) and verb generation (tapping lexical-semantic mapping). We observed that the repetition of spoken pseudowords is mediated by the subtract of STG, while generating an appropriate verb to a spoken noun is mediated by the subtract of MTG. Our findings provide strong evidence for a functional dissociation between the AF subtracts, namely a sublexical phonological mapping by the STG subtract and a lexical-semantic mapping by the MTG subtract. Our results contribute to the unraveling of a century-old controversy concerning the functional role in speech production of a major fiber tract involved in language.

Real-Time Neuropsychological Testing Protocol for Left Temporal Brain Tumor Surgery: A Technical Note and Case Report.

Background: The risk of surgery in eloquent areas is related to neuropsychological dysfunctions. Maximizing the extent of resection increases the overall survival. The onco-functional balance is mandatory when surgery involves cognitive areas, and maximal information on the cognitive status of patients during awake surgery is needed. This can be achieved using direct cortical stimulation mapping and, in addition to this, a neuropsychological monitoring technique called real-time neuropsychological testing (RTNT). The RTNT includes testing protocols based on the area where the surgery is performed. We reported on tests used for left temporal lobe surgery and our RTNT decision tree.Case Report: We reported our RTNT experience with a 25-year-old right-handed man with 13 years of schooling. He reported daily partial seizures. MRI revealed the presence of a low-grade glioma involving the temporo-insular cortex. The neuropsychological status presurgery which was within the normal range was combined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) information. Awake surgery plus RTNT was performed. Direct electrical stimulation during object naming elicited a motor speech arrest. Resection was continuously accompanied by the RTNT. The RTNT provided enriched information to the surgeon. Performance never dropped. A slight decrement in accuracy emerged for pseudoword repetition, short-term memory and working memory, phonological processing, and verbal comprehension. Total resection was performed, and the histological examination confirmed the nature of the lesion. Immediate postsurgery performance was within the normal range as it was the fMRI and DTI assessment.Conclusion: The RTNT provides essential information that can be used online, during surgery, for clinical aims to provide the surgeon with useful feedback on the cognitive status of patients.

Reading Predictors in Croatian

Phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatised naming (RAN) and working memory (WM) are considered to be the most important factors supporting reading development. However, their relative importance varies across orthographies and age. The goal of this study was to examine reading predictors in Croatian, a language with highly transparent orthography, after three years of formal reading instruction. The study included 80 participants (mean age: 10.07 years). Reading rate and accuracy were measured using lists of words and pseudowords, and PA was measured using phoneme deletion, phoneme addition and spoonerism tasks. RAN was measured using naming of colours, and WM was measured using the WM standardised measure of digit span (WISC-IV-HR) and pseudoword repetition. In order to find the best predictors of reading rate and accuracy for both words and pseudowords, three-stage hierarchical multiple regression was conducted. The results showed that in highly transparent language when reading is automatised, RAN is the most significant predictor of both reading rate and accuracy. Although this study did not show dissociation between the predictors supporting reading speed and reading accuracy, it confirmed the importance of PA as a suppressor variable for RAN in predicting pseudowords reading time.

Repetición de pseudopalabras en trastorno específico del lenguaje

Numerosas hipótesis explicativas apoyan la existencia de limitaciones en el bucle fonológico de las personas con Trastorno Específico del Lenguaje (TEL). La repetición de pseudopalabras es una tarea sensible a la capacidad del bucle fonológico dentro de la memoria de trabajo, puesto que esta repetición provoca que el niño tenga que mantener de forma temporal la información fonológica, para más tarde reproducirlo. El objetivo principal de este trabajo es aportar información novedosa acerca de las diferencias en los resultados entre niños con desarrollo típico y trastornos del lenguaje ante una tarea de repetición de pseudopalabras donde los estímulos han sido controlados estrictamente a nivel fonológico. En este estudio participaron un total de 36 niños de entre 7 y 12 años: 18 niños con desarrollo típico y 18 con diagnóstico previo de TEL. Para llevar a cabo dicho estudio se elaboró una prueba de repetición de pseudopalabras controlando variables, como son la longitud, frecuencia, composición, acentuación y repeticiones de cada sílaba. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que los niños con TEL se muestran más sensibles a las variables de longitud, frecuencia y la interacción entre estas. De igual forma, los datos han demostrado que la posición en la que aparece una sílaba infrecuente juega un papel importante, provocando mayores errores en los niños con desarrollo típico (DT) cuando la sílaba infrecuente se encuentra en última posición. Los datos obtenidos ponen en manifiesto la necesidad de continuar analizando de manera sistemática la interacción entre las variables longitud y frecuencia. Además, se comentan las implicaciones de cara al diagnóstico clínico.

Cambios en el voice onset time en hablantes franceses de entre 40 y 80 años de edad

IntroductionThis study explores the ways in which ageing affects speech production. Older individuals present many changes in processes of motor control, as well as in the integrity of laryngeal and supralaryngeal muscles, which may affect speech production. However, few studies have addressed these capacities in the context of healthy ageing, especially in French-speaking people. MethodsThe study focused on voice onset time (VOT), a feature of speech that is particularly relevant in the study of the temporal and spatial coordination of laryngeal and supralaryngeal gestures. We recruited French-speaking individuals, who were grouped according to age, as follows: 40-49, 50-59, 60-69, and 70-79 years. They were asked to perform a pseudoword repetition task including the 6 voiced and voiceless occlusives that exist in the French language: /p, t, k, b, d, g/. ResultsWe observed a longer duration of pseudowords in participants older than 70 years (F[3,847] = 352; p = .02), probably due to slowing of speech movements. In the 70-79 years age group, further difficulties were detected with voice onset and maintenance during occlusion. This resulted in shorter VOT (delayed prevoicing) (F[3,848] = 5.23; p = .001), as well as incomplete voicing (interruption of voicing before opening) of voiced occlusives at the beginning of /b, d, g/ words (F[3,422] = 3.01; p = .03); this, in turn, led to a reduction in the difference in VOT between voiced and voiceless sounds. DiscussionOur results indicate difficulties in the coordination of articulator movements, suggesting an age-related decline in the motor control of speech.

Narrative Language Markers of Arabic Language Development and Impairment.

Purpose We examined indices of narrative microstructure as metrics of language development and impairment in Arabic-speaking children. We examined their age sensitivity, correlations with standardized measures, and ability to differentiate children with average language and language impairment. Method We collected story narratives from 177 children (54.2% boys) between 3.08 and 10.92 years old (M = 6.25, SD = 1.67) divided into six age bands. Each child also received standardized measures of spoken language (Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary, Sentence Imitation, and Pseudoword Repetition). Several narrative indices of microstructure were examined in each age band. Children were divided into (suspected) developmental language disorder and typical language groups using the standardized test scores and compared on the narrative indicators. Sensitivity and specificity of the narrative indicators that showed group differences were calculated. Results The measures that showed age sensitivity included subject omission error rate, number of object clitics, correct use of subject-verb agreement, and mean length of utterance in words. The developmental language disorder group scored higher on subject omission errors (Cohen's d = 0.55) and lower on correct use of subject-verb agreement (Cohen's d = 0.48) than the typical language group. The threshold for impaired performance with the highest combination of specificity and sensitivity was 35th percentile. Conclusions Several indices of narrative microstructure appear to be valid metrics for documenting language development in children acquiring Gulf Arabic. Subject omission errors and correct use of subject-verb agreement differentiate children with typical and atypical levels of language development.

Minimal and Mild Hearing Loss in Children: Association with Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Communication Problems.

"Minimal" and "mild" hearing loss are the most common but least understood forms of hearing loss in children. Children with better ear hearing level as low as 30 dB HL have a global language impairment and, according to the World Health Organization, a "disabling level of hearing loss." We examined in a population of 6- to 11-year-olds how hearing level ≤40.0 dB HL (1 and 4 kHz pure-tone average, PTA, threshold) is related to auditory perception, cognition, and communication. School children (n = 1638) were recruited in 4 centers across the United Kingdom. They completed a battery of hearing (audiometry, filter width, temporal envelope, speech-in-noise) and cognitive (IQ, attention, verbal memory, receptive language, reading) tests. Caregivers assessed their children's communication and listening skills. Children included in this study (702 male; 752 female) had 4 reliable tone thresholds (1, 4 kHz each ear), and no caregiver reported medical or intellectual disorder. Normal-hearing children (n = 1124, 77.1%) had all 4 thresholds and PTA <15 dB HL. Children with ≥15 dB HL for at least 1 threshold, and PTA <20 dB (n = 245, 16.8%) had minimal hearing loss. Children with 20 ≤PTA <40 dB HL (n = 88, 6.0%) had mild hearing loss. Interaural asymmetric hearing loss ( left PTA - right PTA ≥10 dB) was found in 28.9% of those with minimal and 39.8% of those with mild hearing loss. Speech perception in noise, indexed by vowel-consonant-vowel pseudoword repetition in speech-modulated noise, was impaired in children with minimal and mild hearing loss, relative to normal-hearing children. Effect size was largest (d = 0.63) in asymmetric mild hearing loss and smallest (d = 0.21) in symmetric minimal hearing loss. Spectral (filter width) and temporal (backward masking) perceptions were impaired in children with both forms of hearing loss, but suprathreshold perception generally related only weakly to PTA. Speech-in-noise (nonsense syllables) and language (pseudoword repetition) were also impaired in both forms of hearing loss and correlated more strongly with PTA. Children with mild hearing loss were additionally impaired in working memory (digit span) and reading, and generally performed more poorly than those with minimal loss. Asymmetric hearing loss produced as much impairment overall on both auditory and cognitive tasks as symmetric hearing loss. Nonverbal IQ, attention, and caregiver-rated listening and communication were not significantly impaired in children with hearing loss. Modeling suggested that 15 dB HL is objectively an appropriate lower audibility limit for diagnosis of hearing loss. Hearing loss between 15 and 30 dB PTA is, at ~20%, much more prevalent in 6- to 11-year-old children than most current estimates. Key aspects of auditory and cognitive skills are impaired in both symmetric and asymmetric minimal and mild hearing loss. Hearing loss <30 dB HL is most closely related to speech perception in noise, and to cognitive abilities underpinning language and reading. The results suggest wider use of speech-in-noise measures to diagnose and assess management of hearing loss and reduction of the clinical hearing loss threshold for children to 15 dB HL.

The Modulation of Stimulus Familiarity on the Repetition Effect in Duration Judgment.

The repetition of a stimulus often produces a shorter subjective duration than does the presentation of a novel item. To test whether familiarity mediates the repetition compression effect, the present study compared the influence of repeated words and pseudowords on apparent duration, using a duration discrimination task. We found a similar magnitude of temporal compression for the repeated-word and repeated-pseudoword conditions. When introducing a further experiment with two new conditions in which the standard–comparison pair shared a character at the first or second constituent position, we observed a shorter subjective duration for whole word (or whole pseudoword) repetition compared with the remaining conditions (i.e., first-character repetition, second-character repetition, and novel baseline). However, temporal compression for the first- and second-character repetitions was observed only for pseudowords but not for words. Our findings indicate that familiarity modulates the perception of duration in constituent character repetition. The results are discussed on the basis of the predictive coding theory.

Neuropsychological and Educational Profile of Children with Dyscalculia and Dyslexia: A Comparative Study

Abstract This paper aims to compare the neuropsychological and educational profiles of Brazilian children with dyscalculia (n = 8), dyslexia (n = 13) and without learning disabilities (n = 12). The neuropsychological profile was composed of: (a) intelligence - assessed by the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-III); (b) attention - WISC-III Coding and Symbol Search subtests; (c) executive functions - Digit Span (backward order) and WISC-III Arithmetic subtests, Pseudoword Repetition Test for Brazilian Children, Stroop Test and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test; (d) memory - WISC-III Digit Span subtest (forward order) and Rey Complex Figures. The educational profile was composed of reading, writing and mathematics, assessed by the Academic Performance Test and the Arithmetic Test. It was found that the groups with dyscalculia and dyslexia did not differentiate in any of the neuropsychological abilities, only in the reading and writing abilities. Neuropsychological variables that could explain these results were discussed.

Orthographic processing is a key predictor of reading fluency in good and poor readers in a transparent orthography

We used structural equation modeling to investigate sources of individual differences in oral reading fluency in a transparent orthography, Russian. Phonological processing, orthographic processing, and rapid automatized naming were used as independent variables, each derived from a combination of two scores: phonological awareness and pseudoword repetition, spelling and orthographic choice, and rapid serial naming of letters and digits, respectively. The contribution of these to oral text-reading fluency was evaluated as a direct relationship and via two mediators, decoding accuracy and unitized reading, measured with a single-word oral reading test. The participants were “good” and “poor” readers, i.e., those with reading skills above the 90th and below the 10th percentiles (n = 1344, grades 2–6, St. Petersburg, Russia). In both groups, orthographic processing skills significantly contributed to fluency and unitized reading, but not to decoding accuracy. Phonological processing skills did not contribute directly to reading fluency in either group, while contributing to decoding accuracy and, to a lesser extent, to unitized reading. With respect to the roles of decoding accuracy and unitized reading, the results for good and poor readers diverged: in good readers, unitized reading, but not decoding accuracy, was significantly related to reading fluency. For poor readers, decoding accuracy (measured as pseudoword decoding) was related to reading fluency, but unitized reading was not. These results underscore the importance of orthographic skills for reading fluency even in an orthography with consistent phonology-to-orthography correspondences. They also point to a qualitative difference in the reading strategies of good and poor readers.

Processamento fonológico: comparação entre crianças com e sem transtorno fonológico

Introdução: O transtorno fonológico (TF) é o fracasso no uso de sons da fala esperados para as etapas do desenvolvimento. Dentre os fatores relacionados com o desenvolvimento da linguagem oral, há o processamento fonológico (PF), formado pelas habilidades de acesso ao léxico, memória fonológica e consciência fonológica. Objetivos: Comparar o desempenho do PF entre crianças com e sem TF, bem como correlacionar as habilidades do PF entre si e com o processamento fonológico total (PFT). Método: Estudo observacional transversal. Participaram 20 crianças entre 5 anos e 8 anos, meninos e meninas, separados em Grupo Pesquisa (GP) e Grupo Controle (GC), respectivamente à presença ou ausência de TF. Foi realizada avaliação das habilidades do PF com Prova de Nomeação Rápida, Teste Infantil Brasileiro de Repetição de Pseudopalavras e Prova de Consciência Fonológica. Os dados receberam análise estatística. Resultados: Foi observada maior prevalência do TF no sexo masculino. Os grupos se mostraram estatisticamente diferentes nas habilidades de acesso ao léxico, memória fonológica e no PFT, com melhor desempenho para o GC. No GP, foram observadas correlações entre as habilidades do PF, com exceção da memória fonológica, que não apresentou correlação com idade e consciência fonológica. No GC, também foram observadas correlações entre as habilidades, com exceção do acesso ao léxico, que apresentou correlação apenas com PFT. Conclusão: As crianças do GP apresentaram pior desempenho nas provas do PF, exceto em consciência fonológica, onde os grupos apresentaram desempenhos semelhantes. As habilidades do PF mostraram correlações entre si, com algumas exceções.

Pragmatic competence and its relationship with the linguistic and cognitive profile of young adults with dyslexia.

The study assessed the pragmatic skills of 19 well-compensated Italian-speaking young adults with dyslexia compared with controls. A comprehensive pragmatic assessment tool was employed, targeting production and comprehension (Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates [APACS]). Participants were also administered a series of standardized tests to assess verbal and non-verbal cognitive abilities, including executive functions and social cognition tests. Data were analysed with the aim of understanding whether pragmatic abilities are compromised in dyslexia and of exploring associations between pragmatic performance and other cognitive domains. The performance of the dyslexia group was poorer than that of the control group in both expressive and receptive modalities. Data showed diffuse problems across several domains, with the greatest challenge posed by inferring nonliteral meanings, which indicates that pragmatic inefficiency is an important aspect of the linguistic and communicative profile of dyslexia in adulthood. Explorative correlations highlighted a relation between pragmatic performance and reading and vocabulary abilities, as well as between pragmatics and working memory. This suggests that pragmatic difficulties are strongly tied to the most distinctive aspects of dyslexia, namely, phonological awareness, verbal short-term memory, pseudo-word repetition, whereas the link with high-level executive functions and Theory of Mind is negligible.

Marcadores del trastorno específico del lenguaje en español: comparación entre la repetición de oraciones y la repetición de pseudopalabras

ObjectiveThis study compares two markers of Specific Language Impairment in Spanish children aged 5 to 7. The markers examined are sentence repetition and pseudoword repetition, which are the two main tasks outlined in the research to identify this disorder. Both contemplate memory deficits as the source of this disorder. We review the ways in which these tasks have been used in marking Specific Language Impairment. ParticipantsThese tasks have been applied to three groups of children, aged 5 to 7 years; one consisting of children with Specific Language Impairment, another of children with Speech Sound Disorder and another of children who are typically developing. ResultsThe results of the discriminant analysis and ROC curve show that sentence repetition exhibits higher sensitivity and specificity in distinguishing children with Specific Language Impairment from children who are typically developing, but only show modest sensibility in differentiating children who are typically developing from children with Speech Sound Disorder. Neither of the two tasks can distinguish with acceptable accuracy children with Specific Language Impairment from children with Speech Sound Disorder. Discussion and conclusionsWe explain the reasons of different marking power to identify children with Specific Language Impairment, Speech Sound Disorder and typical development.

Individual variability in attention and language performance in aphasia: a study using Conner’s Continuous Performance Test

ABSTRACTBackground: Individual variability in attention in aphasia is important because moment-to-moment fluctuations in attention could might influence language performance.Aims: Moment-to-moment variability in performance has been considered a feature of aphasia. The aim of the current work is to study the possible relationship between moment-to-moment intraindividual fluctuations in attention and their possible relationship with language disorders in people with aphasia (PWA).Methods & Procedures: 24 controls and 21 PWA matched by age and sex took part in the study. Language assessment included phonological processing (phonological discrimination, word and pseudoword repetition), lexical access (auditory lexical decision, spoken word-to-picture matching and naming), and semantic association (object–action association, semantic association, and odd-one-out). Attention assessment employed a comprehensive test of basic attention functions (Conner’s Continuous Performance Test II). We studied the association between indices of intraindividual variability in response time in Conner’s Continuous Performance Test and linguistic performance in both groups.Outcomes & Results: PWA showed increased response times and also increased intraindividual variability in response speed. Moreover, only in this group, response speed variability was significantly associated with speech discrimination and with performance in semantic association tasks. Indices of intraindividual variability predicted performance in linguistic tasks in PWA, even after accounting for language performance in related tasks.Conclusion: The current results provide additional support to evidence suggesting a relationship between attention skills and some aspects of linguistic performance in PWA, and draw attention to the putative importance of processing speed instability.