"In the normal reader, successive intra-syllabic sound events are separately represented in high fidelity within the processing channels of the 'primary' auditory cortex. In the impaired reader, they are not," he said.
"These findings are consistent with the increasing evidence," said Merzenich, "that language-impaired and reading-impaired children are a very broadly synonymous population. Scientists have historically argued that only a small percentage of dyslexics have a clear history of early language impairment and fundamental auditory processing deficits. To the contrary, we have seen that most poor readers and most language-impaired children share these same fundamental listening and brain processing abnormalities."
Moreover, he said, "The studies show that these fundamental listening problems clearly persist across a lifetime, even while the basic speech reception abilities of these individuals can ultimately achieve a relatively normal competency."
Co-authors of the study were Henry Mahncke, Ph.D., a research fellow in the Keck Center at UCSF; Talya Salz, of Scientific Learning Corporation in Berkeley, CA; Paula Tallal, Ph.D., co-director of the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience at Rutgers University, Newark, NJ; and Timothy Roberts, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology in the Biomagnetic Imaging Laboratory, Department of Radiology, at UCSF.
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Naval Research, Hearing Research Inc., and the Coleman fund.
'"/>
Contact: Jennifer O'Brien
jobrien@pubaff.ucsf.edu
415-476-2557
University of California - San Francisco
25-May-1999