Characteristics of auditory agnosia in a child with severe traumatic brain injury: a case report

We present a case that is unusual in many respects from other documented incidences of auditory agnosia, including the mechanism of injury, age of the individual, and location of neurological insult. The clinical presentation is one of disturbance in the perception of spoken language, music, pitch, emotional prosody, and temporal auditory processing in the absence of significant deficits in the comprehension of written language, expressive language production, or peripheral auditory function. Furthermore, the patient demonstrates relatively preserved function in other aspects of audition such as sound localization, voice recognition, and perception of animal noises and environmental sounds. This case study demonstrates that auditory agnosia is possible following traumatic brain injury in a child, and illustrates the necessity of assessment with a wide variety of auditory stimuli to fully characterize auditory agnosia in a single individual.     

Some aspects of phonological impairment in aphasia

The relationships between expressive and receptive phonemic disorders and between disturbances of phoneme processing and general disorders of auditory comprehension were studied in 69 aphasic patients, by means of a phoneme discrimination test and of a standard aphasia battery. A significant but incomplete correlation between disorders of phonemic output and of phoneme analysis was found. The view is put forth that in some patients only phoneme encoding or decoding is disturbed, whereas in others a central level of phoneme processing is impaired. A significant but partial correlation was also found between disorders of phonological analysis and general disorders of auditory comprehension. This supports the view that, besides sequential phonological analysis, other processes operate in auditory comprehension.     

Co-localisation of abnormal brain structure and function in specific language impairment

We assessed the relationship between brain structure and function in 10 individuals with specific language impairment (SLI), compared to six unaffected siblings, and 16 unrelated control participants with typical language. Voxel-based morphometry indicated that grey matter in the SLI group, relative to controls, was increased in the left inferior frontal cortex and decreased in the right caudate nucleus and superior temporal cortex bilaterally. The unaffected siblings also showed reduced grey matter in the caudate nucleus relative to controls. In an auditory covert naming task, the SLI group showed reduced activation in the left inferior frontal cortex, right putamen, and in the superior temporal cortex bilaterally. Despite spatially coincident structural and functional abnormalities in frontal and temporal areas, the relationships between structure and function in these regions were different. These findings suggest multiple structural and functional abnormalities in SLI that are differently associated with receptive and expressive language processing.     

Patterns of language impairment and behaviour in boys excluded from school

Background. High levels of behaviour problems are found in children with language impairments, but less is known about the level and nature of language impairment in children with severe behavioural problems. In particular, previous data suggest that at primary age, receptive impairments are more closely related to behaviour problems, whereas expressive language has a closer link at a later age. Aims. The study assessed expressive and receptive language problems in boys excluded from primary and secondary schools, to investigate the extent of impairment, the pattern of relations between age, receptive and expressive language, and relations with different aspects of behaviour. Sample. Nineteen boys (8–16 years of age) who had been excluded from school and 19 non‐excluded controls matched for age and school participated. Method. The sample was given assessments of: receptive language from the British Picture Vocabulary Scale (BPVS), and Wechsler Objective Language Dimensions (WOLD); expressive‐language evaluations from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC); auditory working memory evaluations from the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF); verbal reasoning (from the WISC); and non‐verbal IQ assessments Raven's matrices. Teachers completed behaviour ratings using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Results. Excluded boys were significantly poorer than controls on expressive measures but similar on receptive language and non‐verbal IQ. Boys excluded from primary school were poorer than controls on auditory working memory. Expressive problems were linked with high levels of emotional symptoms. Conclusion. Many of the excluded boys had previously unidentified language problems, supporting the need for early recognition and assessment of language in boys with behaviour problems. Expressive problems in particular may be a risk factor.     

Atypical central auditory speech-sound discrimination in children who stutter as indexed by the mismatch negativity

PurposeRecent theoretical conceptualizations suggest that disfluencies in stuttering may arise from several factors, one of them being atypical auditory processing. The main purpose of the present study was to investigate whether speech sound encoding and central auditory discrimination, are affected in children who stutter (CWS).MethodsParticipants were 10 CWS, and 12 typically developing children with fluent speech (TDC). Event-related potentials (ERPs) for syllables and syllable changes [consonant, vowel, vowel-duration, frequency (F0), and intensity changes], critical in speech perception and language development of CWS were compared to those of TDC.ResultsThere were no significant group differences in the amplitudes or latencies of the P1 or N2 responses elicited by the standard stimuli. However, the Mismatch Negativity (MMN) amplitude was significantly smaller in CWS than in TDC. For TDC all deviants of the linguistic multifeature paradigm elicited significant MMN amplitudes, comparable with the results found earlier with the same paradigm in 6-year-old children. In contrast, only the duration change elicited a significant MMN in CWS.ConclusionsThe results showed that central auditory speech-sound processing was typical at the level of sound encoding in CWS. In contrast, central speech-sound discrimination, as indexed by the MMN for multiple sound features (both phonetic and prosodic), was atypical in the group of CWS. Findings were linked to existing conceptualizations on stuttering etiology.Educational objectives: The reader will be able (a) to describe recent findings on central auditory speech-sound processing in individuals who stutter, (b) to describe the measurement of auditory reception and central auditory speech-sound discrimination, (c) to describe the findings of central auditory speech-sound discrimination, as indexed by the mismatch negativity (MMN), in children who stutter.     

Basic Language Skills and Young Children's Understanding of Causal Connections During Storytelling

The current study examined the role of basic language skills for individual differences in preschoolers’ understanding of causal connections. Assessments of basic language skills, expressive vocabulary, phonological processing, and receptive language comprehension were examined in relation to the production of causal connections in a storytelling task, at two time periods. Similar to previous cross-sectional research, children's causal connections increased over six months. As hypothesized, expressive vocabulary and phonological processing predicted causal connections at Time 1. Six months later, only phonological processing predicted causal connections. Results provide new information regarding the significance of basic language skills for early narrative skills.     

Predictors of early vocabulary growth in children born preterm and full term: A study of processing speed and medical complications

Delays in expressive vocabulary may be harbingers of long-term language difficulties. In toddlers born full term (FT), individual differences in language processing speed are associated with variation in expressive vocabulary growth. Children born preterm (PT) are at increased risk for persistent language deficits. Here, we evaluate predictors of early vocabulary growth in PT toddlers in relation to two sources of variability: language processing speed and medical complications of prematurity. Vocabulary growth from 16 to 30 months (adjusted for degree of prematurity) was modeled longitudinally using parent reports in English-speaking FT (n = 63; ≥37 weeks, ≥2495 g) and PT (n = 69; ≤32 weeks, <1800 g) children, matched on sex and socioeconomic status. Children were tested in the “looking-while-listening task” at 18 months to derive a measure of language processing speed. Each PT child was assessed for number of medical complications (13 maximum), based on medical chart reviews. PT and FT children displayed similar vocabulary trajectories; however, birth group disparities began to emerge by 30 months. PT children were slower in language processing speed than FT children. Critically, language processing speed predicted expressive vocabulary size at 30 months; interactions with birth group were not significant (all p > .20). In PT children, faster language processing speed predicted stronger outcomes regardless of number of medical complications; slower processing speed and more medical complications predicted poorer outcomes. Faster processing speed reflected favorable neuropsychological processes associated with faster expressive vocabulary growth that overrode the impact of medical complications on language outcomes in PT children.     

Auditory backward masking deficits in children with reading disabilities

Studies evaluating temporal auditory processing among individuals with reading and other language deficits have yielded inconsistent findings due to methodological problems () and sample differences. In the current study, seven auditory masking thresholds were measured in fifty-two 7- to 10-year-old children (26 diagnosed with reading disability [RD], 26 without reading disability). Hierarchic multiple regression analyses indicated that RD status predicted performance only in the backward-bandpass noise (p<.05) and backward notched-noise conditions (p<.05), suggesting both temporal and spectral auditory processing deficits. These results suggest that any auditory deficit associated with RD may be more complex than previously hypothesized.     

Syntactic gender processing in the human brain: a review and a model

Despite the increasing number of neuroimaging studies of syntactic gender processing no model is currently available that includes data from visual and auditory language comprehension and language production. This paper provides a systematic review of the neural correlates of syntactic gender processing. Based on anatomical information from cytoarchitectonic probability maps it is argued that the left BA 44 plays a central role for the active use of gender information, e.g., for explicit decisions as well as for subsequent morphological encoding. The left BA 45 is involved in the strategic generation of morphological cues that facilitate gender processing. Model implications for aphasic patients with lesions including or excluding parts of Broca's speech region are discussed.     

Electrophysiological correlates of rapid auditory and linguistic processing in adolescents with specific language impairment

Brief tonal stimuli and spoken sentences were utilized to examine whether adolescents (aged 14;3-18;1) with specific language impairments (SLI) exhibit atypical neural activity for rapid auditory processing of non-linguistic stimuli and linguistic processing of verb-agreement and semantic constraints. Further, we examined whether the behavioral and electrophysiological indices for rapid auditory processing were correlated with those for linguistic processing. Fifteen adolescents with SLI and 15 adolescents with normal language met strict criteria for displaying consistent diagnoses from kindergarten through the eighth grade. The findings provide evidence that auditory processing for non-linguistic stimuli is atypical in a significant number of adolescents with SLI compared to peers with normal language and indicate that reduced efficiency in auditory processing in SLI is more vulnerable to rapid rates (200ms ISI) of stimuli presentation (indexed by reduced accuracy, a tendency for longer RTs, reduced N100 over right anterior sites, and reduced amplitude P300). Many adolescents with SLI displayed reduced behavioral accuracy for detecting verb-agreement violations and semantic anomalies, along with less robust P600s elicited by verb-agreement violations. The results indicate that ERPs elicited by morphosyntactic aspects of language processing are atypical in many adolescents with SLI. Additionally, correlational analyses between behavioral and electrophysiological indices of processing non-linguistic stimuli and verb-agreement violations suggest that the integrity of neural functions for auditory processing may only account for a small proportion of the variance in morphosyntactic processing in some adolescents.     

The use of averaged electroencephalic response techniques in the study of auditory processing related to speech and language

This paper reviews a number of studies done by the authors and others, who have utilized various averaged electroencephalic response (AER) techniques to study speech and language processing. Pertinent studies are described in detail. A relatively new AER technique, auditory brainstem responses (ABR), is described and its usefulness in studying auditory processing activity related to speech and language is outlined. In addition, a series of ABR studies, that have demonstrated significant male—female differences in ABR auditory processing abilities, is presented and the relevance of these data to already established differences in male—female language, hearing, and cognitive abilities is discussed.     

Perception of auditory motion affects language processing

Previous reports have demonstrated that the comprehension of sentences describing motion in a particular direction (toward, away, up, or down) is affected by concurrently viewing a stimulus that depicts motion in the same or opposite direction. We report 3 experiments that extend our understanding of the relation between perception and language processing in 2 ways. First, whereas most previous studies of the relation between perception and language processing have focused on visual perception, our data show that sentence processing can be affected by the concurrent processing of auditory stimuli. Second, it is shown that the relation between the processing of auditory stimuli and the processing of sentences depends on whether the sentences are presented in the auditory or visual modality.     

Auditory processing deficits in children with reading and language impairments: can they (and should they) be treated?

Sixty-five children with specific reading disability (SRD), 25 children with specific language impairment (SLI), and 37 age-matched controls were tested for their frequency discrimination, rapid auditory processing, vowel discrimination, and consonant–vowel discrimination. Subgroups of children with SRD or SLI produced abnormal frequency discrimination (42%), rapid auditory processing (12%), vowel discrimination (23%), or consonant–vowel discrimination (18%) thresholds for their age. Twenty-eight of these children trained on a programme that targeted their specific auditory processing deficit for 6 weeks. Twenty-five of these 28 trainees produced normal thresholds for their targeted processing skill after training. These gains were not explained by gains in auditory attention, in the ability to do psychophysical tasks in general, or by test–retest effects. The 25 successful trainees also produced significantly higher scores on spoken language and spelling tests after training. However, an untrained control group showed test–retest effects on the same tests. These results suggest that auditory processing deficits can be treated successfully in children with SRD and SLI but that this does not help them acquire new reading, spelling, or spoken language skills.     

Shedding light on words and sentences: near-infrared spectroscopy in language research

Investigating the neuronal network underlying language processing may contribute to a better understanding of how the brain masters this complex cognitive function with surprising ease and how language is acquired at a fast pace in infancy. Modern neuroimaging methods permit to visualize the evolvement and the function of the language network. The present paper focuses on a specific methodology, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), providing an overview over studies on auditory language processing and acquisition. The methodology detects oxygenation changes elicited by functional activation of the cerebral cortex. The main advantages for research on auditory language processing and its development during infancy are an undemanding application, the lack of instrumental noise, and its potential to simultaneously register electrophysiological responses. Also it constitutes an innovative approach for studying developmental issues in infants and children. The review will focus on studies on word and sentence processing including research in infants and adults.     

The pars triangularis in dyslexia and ADHD: A comprehensive approach

Limited research has been conducted on the structure of the pars triangularis (PT) in dyslexia despite functional neuroimaging research finding it may play a role in phonological processing. Furthermore, research to date has not examined PT size in ADHD even though the right inferior frontal region has been implicated in the disorder. Hence, one of the purposes of this study was to examine the structure of the PT in dyslexia and ADHD. The other purposes included examining the PT in relation to overall expressive language ability and in relation to several specific linguistic functions given language functioning often is affected in both dyslexia and ADHD. Participants included 50 children: 10 with dyslexia, 15 with comorbid dyslexia/ADHD, 15 with ADHD, and 10 controls. Using a 2 (dyslexia or not) × 2 (ADHD or not) MANCOVA, findings revealed PT length and shape were comparable between those with and without dyslexia. However, children with ADHD had smaller right PT lengths than those without ADHD, and right anterior ascending ramus length was related to attention problems in the total sample. In terms of linguistic functioning, presence of an extra sulcus in the left PT was related to poor expressive language ability. In those with adequate expressive language functioning, left PT length was related to phonological awareness, phonological short-term memory and rapid automatic naming (RAN). Right PT length was related to RAN and semantic processing. Further work on PT morphology in relation to ADHD and linguistic functioning is warranted.     

Auditory-Processing Malleability: Focus on Language and Music

ABSTRACT— Auditory processing forms the basis of humans' ability to engage in complex behaviors such as understanding spoken language or playing a musical instrument. Auditory processing is not a rigid, encapsulated process; rather, it interacts intimately with other neural systems and is affected by experience, environmental influences, and active training. Auditory processing is related to language and cognitive function, and impaired auditory processing negatively affects the quality of life of many people. Recent studies suggest that the malleability of the auditory system may be used to study the interaction between sensory and cognitive processes and to enhance human well-being.     

Grammatical language impairment and the specificity of cognitive domains: relations between auditory and language abilities

Grammatical-specific language impairment (G-SLI) in children, arguably, provides evidence for the existence of a specialised grammatical sub-system in the brain, necessary for normal language development. Some researchers challenge this, claiming that domain-general, low-level auditory deficits, particular to rapid processing, cause phonological deficits and thereby SLI. We investigate this possibility by testing the auditory discrimination abilities of G-SLI children for speech and non-speech sounds, at varying presentation rates, and controlling for the effects of age and language on performance. For non-speech formant transitions, 69% of the G-SLI children showed normal auditory processing, whereas for the same acoustic information in speech, only 31% did so. For rapidly presented tones, 46% of the G-SLI children performed normally. Auditory performance with speech and non-speech sounds differentiated the G-SLI children from their age-matched controls, whereas speed of processing did not. The G-SLI children evinced no relationship between their auditory and phonological/grammatical abilities. We found no consistent evidence that a deficit in processing rapid acoustic information causes or maintains G-SLI. The findings, from at least those G-SLI children who do not exhibit any auditory deficits, provide further evidence supporting the existence of a primary domain-specific deficit underlying G-SLI.     

On the role of space and time in auditory processing

Unlike visual and tactile stimuli, auditory signals that allow perception of timbre, pitch and localization are temporal. To process these, the auditory nervous system must either possess specialized neural machinery for analyzing temporal input, or transform the initial responses into patterns that are spatially distributed across its sensory epithelium. The former hypothesis, which postulates the existence of structures that facilitate temporal processing, is most popular. However, I argue that the cochlea transforms sound into spatiotemporal response patterns on the auditory nerve and central auditory stages; and that a unified computational framework exists for central auditory, visual and other sensory processing. Specifically, I explain how four fundamental concepts in visual processing play analogous roles in auditory processing.     

The role of the auditory brainstem in processing linguistically-relevant pitch patterns

Historically, the brainstem has been neglected as a part of the brain involved in language processing. We review recent evidence of language-dependent effects in pitch processing based on comparisons of native vs. nonnative speakers of a tonal language from electrophysiological recordings in the auditory brainstem. We argue that there is enhancing of linguistically-relevant pitch dimensions or features well before the auditory signal reaches the cerebral cortex. We propose that long-term experience with a tone language sharpens the tuning characteristics of neurons along the pitch axis with enhanced sensitivity to linguistically-relevant, rapidly changing sections of pitch contours. Though not specific to a speech context, experience-dependent brainstem mechanisms for pitch representation are clearly sensitive to particular aspects of pitch contours that native speakers of a tone language have been exposed to. Such experience-dependent effects on lower-level sensory processing are compatible with more integrated, hierarchically organized pathways to language and the brain.     

汉语普通话声调感知的老年化效应：来自ERP的证据

研究考察汉语普通话老年人前注意阶段声调感知状况, 探究是否存在领域特殊的老年化。运用事件相关电位技术, 采用被动oddball范式诱发MMN回应, 控制领域一般性因素的影响。结果显示涉及范畴变化的声调和非语音音调诱发MMN强度衰减, 不涉及范畴变化的声调诱发MMN强度未衰退。研究结果表明在前注意阶段, 在特定汉语普通话声调范畴知识加工能力上存在领域特殊的衰退, 而不涉及母语音位知识的声调的感知存在领域特殊的一定程度的保留, 这一保留与时间维度上补偿机制的调用有关。受补偿机制调节, 语言加工呈现出衰退或保留等不同的老年化进程。