Delayed detection of tonal targets in background noise in dyslexia.

Full Abstract

Individuals with developmental dyslexia are often impaired in their ability to process certain linguistic and even basic non-linguistic auditory signals. Recent investigations report conflicting findings regarding impaired low-level binaural detection mechanisms associated with dyslexia. Binaural impairment has been hypothesized to stem from a general low-level processing disorder for temporally fine sensory stimuli. Here we use a new behavioral paradigm to address this issue. We compared the response times of dyslexic listeners and their matched controls in a tone-in-noise detection task. The tonal signals were either Huggins Pitch (HP), a stimulus requiring binaural processing to elicit a pitch percept, or a pure tone-perceptually similar but physically very different signals. The results showed no difference between the two groups specific to the processing of HP and thus no evidence for a binaural impairment in dyslexia. However, dyslexic subjects exhibited a general difficulty in extracting tonal objects from background noise, manifested by a globally delayed detection speed.

Author information

Author/s: Chait, Maria (M); Eden, Guinevere (G); Poeppel, David (D); Simon, Jonathan Z (JZ); Hill, Deborah F (DF); Flowers, D Lynn (DL);

Affiliation: Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, Department of Linguistics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-7505, USA. mariac(-atsign-)wam.umd.edu

Grants: HD37890 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS) ; P01 HD 21887 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS) ; P50 HD 40095 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS) ; R01DC05660 (Agency:NIDCD NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Brain and language (Brain Lang), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Jul; vol 102 (issue 1) : pp 80-90

Dates: Created 2007/05/30; Completed 2007/09/26; Revised 2007/12/03;

PMID: 16887180, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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