Monthly Archives: June 2009
Two Day Treatment of Auditory Hallucinations by High Frequency rTMS Guided by Cerebral Imaging: a 6 Months Follow-up Study
Researchers us a technique called Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation to treat hallucinations.
from Newswise.com
‘Taking Up a Dialogue’ with the Brain: Letter Decoding from Single-trial Brain Signals
Brain-computer interfaces ‘translate’ what a person is thinking in words or actions.
from Newswise.com
Stars Spotlight Personal Triumphs Over Stuttering
Stars from the world of entertainment and finance spoke out at a gala benefit this week in New York City with one goal in mind: to help lift the stigma around stuttering, and to further research into a condition affecting millions of Americans.
from HealthScout.com
Cerebellar Injury in Term Infants: Clinical Characteristics, Magnetic Resonance Imaging Findings, and Outcome
Although cerebellar injury in the premature infant is an increasingly recognized form of neonatal brain injury, its structural and functional outcomes remain poorly defined in the term infant. The objective of this cross-sectional study was to characterize the clinical and magnetic resonance imaging features and neurodevelopmental outcome in children, born at term, with cerebellar injury. Over a 5-year period, 20 infants were identified with ischemic (n = 3) or hemorrhagic (n = 17) cerebellar injury. Lesions were small (<1 cm) in 12 cases, and large in 8 cases. Prenatal and intrapartum factors frequently documented in term infants with cerebellar injury included primiparity (55%), advanced maternal age (30%), group B streptococcus-positive mothers (35%), abnormal fetal heart rate (35%), instrumented delivery (30%), and cesarean section (25%). At follow-up of 18 cases (median age, 32 months), 39% had neurologic abnormalities. Gross motor delays, expressive language deficits, and externalizing behavioral problems were the most common (44%). Cognitive deficits were present in one third of cases. Larger cerebellar lesions were associated with significantly lower cognitive, gross motor, expressive language, and social-behavioral scores. Cerebellar injury in the term infant is associated with a broad spectrum of neurodevelopmental disabilities, particularly in infants with large cerebellar lesions.
from Pediatric Neurology
Transient Mutism and Pathologic Laughter in the Course of Cerebellitis
The phenomenon of cerebellar mutism with subsequent dysarthria is most commonly described as a part of posterior fossa syndrome after surgery for neoplasms in childhood. Pathologic laughter, on the other hand, is observed primarily in various neurologic diseases in adults. In the present case, a child manifested transient mutism and pathologic laughter during a severe cerebellitis. Headache, vertigo, and impaired consciousness developed during an acute respiratory infection. Thereafter, severe ataxia, mutism, and involuntary laughter became the main clinical features, as well as pyramidal signs. Magnetic resonance imaging revealed cerebellar swelling and T2 hyperintensity. During steroid treatment, a gradual vanishing of the pathologic laughter and improvement of the motor and speech functions occurred. Recovery was slow and incomplete, and follow-up magnetic resonance imaging showed cerebellar atrophy. This case confirms that mutism is a rare, but possible, manifestation in acute parainfectious cerebellitis and provides a novel example of pathologic laughter during this disease in childhood.
from Pediatric Neurology
An acoustic analysis of prosody in high-functioning autism
This paper examined the fundamental frequency variation in the narratives of individuals with high-functioning autism (HFA) and typical controls matched on age, IQ, and verbal abilities. Study 1 found increased fundamental frequency variation in the speech of 21 children and adolescents with HFA when compared to 21 typical controls. Study 2 replicated the findings from Study 1 with a younger sample of 17 children with HFA and 17 typical controls. In addition, Study 1 found evidence that acoustic measurements of prosody were related to clinical judgments of autism-specific communication impairments, although this was not replicated in Study 2. Taken together, these studies provide evidence for differences in expressive prosody in individuals with HFA that can be measured objectively.
Common variance in amplitude envelope perception tasks and their impact on phoneme duration perception and reading and spelling in Finnish children with reading disabilities
Our goal was to investigate auditory and speech perception abilities of children with and without reading disability (RD) and associations between auditory, speech perception, reading, and spelling skills. Participants were 9-year-old, Finnish-speaking children with RD (N = 30) and typically reading children (N = 30). Results showed significant group differences between the groups in phoneme duration discrimination but not in perception of amplitude modulation and rise time. Correlations among rise time discrimination, phoneme duration, and spelling accuracy were found for children with RD. Those children with poor rise time discrimination were also poor in phoneme duration discrimination and in spelling. Results suggest that auditory processing abilities could, at least in some children, affect speech perception skills, which in turn would lead to phonological processing deficits and dyslexia.
Early metalinguistic awareness of derivational morphology: Observations from a comparison of English and French
This cross-linguistic comparison of metalinguistic development in French and English examines early ability to manipulate derivational suffixes in oral language games as a function of chronological age, receptive vocabulary, and year of schooling. Data from judgment and production tasks are presented for children aged between 5 and 8 years in their first, second, or third school year in the United Kingdom and France. The results suggest that metamorphological development is accelerated in French relative to English. The French advantage encompasses knowledge of a broader range of suffixes and a markedly greater facility for generalizing morphological knowledge to novel contexts. These findings are interpreted in relation to the word formation systems of English and French, and the educational context in each country.
Talking about writing: What we can learn from conversations between parents and their young children
In six analyses using the Child Language Data Exchange System known as CHILDES, we explored whether and how parents and their 1.5- to 5-year-old children talk about writing. Parent speech might include information about the similarity between print and speech and about the difference between writing and drawing. Parents could convey similarity between print and speech by using the words say, name, and word to refer to both spoken and written language. Parents could differentiate writing and drawing by making syntactic and semantic distinctions in their discussion of the two symbol systems. Our results indicate that parent speech includes these types of information. However, young children themselves sometimes confuse writing and drawing in their speech.
The orthographic consistency effect in the recognition of French spoken words: An early developmental shift from sublexical to lexical orthographic activation
The generality of the orthographic consistency effect in speech recognition tasks previously reported for Portuguese beginning readers was assessed in French-speaking children, as the French orthographic code presents a higher degree of inconsistency than the Portuguese one. Although the findings obtained with the French second graders replicated the generalized consistency effect (both for words and pseudowords, in both lexical decision and shadowing) displayed by the Portuguese second to fourth graders, the data obtained with the French third and fourth graders resembled the adult pattern, with the orthographic effect restricted to lexical decision. This suggests that, in the course of literacy acquisition, the overall orthographic inconsistency of the language’s orthographic code influences the rate at which orthographic representations will impact on spoken word recognition.
A longitudinal investigation of oral narrative skills in children with mixed reading disability
This 2-year longitudinal study investigated oral narrative ability in 14 children with mixed reading disability and their age-matched peers with typical development. The children were aged between 6;4 and 7;8 at the commencement of the study and assessments were administered individually to the children on three occasions over a 2-year period. Oral narratives were elicited in a personal narrative context (i.e., the child was encouraged to relate personal experiences in response to photo prompts) and a story retelling context. Oral narrative comprehension was assessed in a fictional story context through questions relating to story structure elements. Results indicated that the children with mixed reading disability demonstrated inferior oral narrative production and oral narrative comprehension performance compared to children with typical reading development at each assessment occasion. To further explore these children’s difficulties in oral narrative ability, their performance was compared to a reading comprehension-age match control group at the third assessment trial. The results suggested the children with mixed reading disability had a specific deficit in oral narrative comprehension.
Extraction of Sources of Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions by Onset Decomposition
The time courses of the amplitude onsets of these separated primary- and secondary-source components provided evidence that the primary-source component attained its steady state before the secondary-source component started to significantly influence the DPOAE by interference with the primary-source component. Consequently, in the final paradigm, the primary-source component is extracted by sampling the DPOAE signal at a single pre-defined time instant after the onset of the f2 stimulus tone, before the secondary component begins to interfere. Based on the near-absence of interference maxima and minima in the DP-grams, the appropriate sampling instant was 8 – 10 ms for all frequencies and intensities in the stimulus set. Extracting the primary source by onset sampling has the advantage that when individual source components for a given f2 are to be investigated, there is no need to measure a DP-gram. In conclusion, it is shown that the technique can reliably and quickly separate the source components, making it an attractive paradigm for applications in basic research and clinical diagnosis.
from Hearing Research
Current knowledge, controversies and future directions in hyperfunctional voice disorders
Taking the preceding five papers in this special issue of the International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology as a starting point, this paper synthesizes key aspects of hyperfunctional voice disorders (HFVD). Aetiological and contributing factors, defining features, prevention, assessment and intervention are canvassed, while controversial issues and future directions in research and clinical practice are discussed. Despite disagreements and inconsistencies in terminology surrounding HFVD, there is broad agreement that musculoskeletal tension is the hallmark of these voice disorders. There is also reasonable consensus that the pathogenesis and persistence of HFVD are associated with multiple and overlapping factors, some of which are likely to interact in as yet unknown ways. In addition to dysregulated laryngeal muscle functioning, key processes in the psychosocial and sensory domains are canvassed as likely contributors to HFVD. Vocal fatigue is considered as an intriguing relative of HFVD, the role of laryngopharyngeal reflux is debated and the proposition that particular individuals are psychologically and/or physiologically predisposed to HFVD is discussed. New directions in assessment highlight the use of client-centred measures to consider insider perspectives of psychological factors, vocal effort and vocal fatigue. Emerging psychosocial and physical-manipulative interventions are emphasized and the future educational needs of voice care professionals are considered.
The role of anxiety sensitivity and behavioral avoidance in tinnitus disability
The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of anxiety sensitivity and behavioral avoidance in tinnitus distress and functioning. A cross-sectional sample of 283 individuals experiencing tinnitus was obtained from an epidemiological national survey study on hearing loss, dizziness, and tinnitus. The subjects completed a series of questionnaires measuring anxiety sensitivity, anxiety, and depression. They also answered questions regarding tinnitus distress, functioning, and avoidance. Results revealed a positive significant correlation between anxiety sensitivity and tinnitus distress. This relationship was not better explained by anxiety and depression symptoms. In addition, the findings provided support for a model where behavioral avoidance fully mediated the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and tinnitus functioning, and partially mediated the relationship between anxiety sensitivity and tinnitus distress. Implications for the role of anxiety sensitivity and behavioral avoidance in tinnitus research are discussed.
from the International Journal of Audiology
Rapid Automatized Naming and Learning Disabilities: Does RAN Have a Specific Connection to Reading or Not?
This work is an extension of a study by Waber, Wolff, Forbes, and Weiler (2000) in which the specificity of naming speed deficits to reading disability (RD) was examined. One hundred ninety-three children (ages 8 to 11) evaluated for learning disabilities were studied. It was determined how well rapid automatized naming (RAN) discriminated between different diagnostic groups (learning impaired [LI] with and without RD) from controls and from each other. Whereas Waber et al. concluded that RAN was an excellent tool for detecting risk for learning disabilities in general, the results of the present study point to a more specific connection between RAN and RD.
