Motion-perception deficits and reading impairment: it's the noise, not the motion.

Full Abstract

We tested the hypothesis that deficits on sensory-processing tasks frequently associated with poor reading and dyslexia are the result of impairments in external-noise exclusion, rather than motion perception or magnocellular processing. We compared the motion-direction discrimination thresholds of adults and children with good or poor reading performance, using coherent-motion displays embedded in external noise. Both adults and children who were poor readers had higher thresholds than their respective peers in the presence of high external noise, but not in the presence of low external noise or when the signal was clearly demarcated. Adults' performance in high external noise correlated with their general reading ability, whereas children's performance correlated with their language and verbal abilities. The results support the hypothesis that noise-exclusion deficits impair reading and language development and suggest that the impact of such deficits on the development of reading skills changes with age.

Author information

Author/s: Sperling, Anne J (AJ); Lu, Zhong-Lin (ZL); Manis, Franklin R (FR); Seidenberg, Mark S (MS);

Affiliation: Georgetown University Medical Center, USA. sperlinga(-atsign-)mail.nih.gov

Grants: HD29891 (Agency:NICHD NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

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

Journal: Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS (Psychol Sci), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2006-Dec; vol 17 (issue 12) : pp 1047-53

Dates: Created 2007/01/04; Completed 2007/02/23; Revised 2007/12/03;

PMID: 17201786, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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