Monthly Archives: July 2010
Cochlear implantation in common forms of genetic deafness
Genetic factors are among the main etiologies of severe to profound hearing loss and may play an important role in cochlear implantation (CI) outcomes. While genes for common forms of deafness have been cloned, efforts to correlate the functional outcome of CIs with a genetic form of deafness carried by the patient have been largely anecdotal to date. It has been suggested that the differences in auditory performance may be explained by differences in the number of surviving spiral ganglion cells, etiology of hearing loss, and other factors. Knowledge of the specific loci and mutations involved in patients who receive cochlear implants may elucidate other factors related to CI performance. In this review article, current knowledge of cochlear implants for hereditary hearing loss will be discussed with an emphasis on relevant clinical genotype–phenotype correlations.
from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
DFNB1-associated deafness in Portuguese cochlear implant users: Prevalence and impact on oral outcome
This first screening of DFNB1 genes in the Portuguese CI population provides clear evidence of the high proportion of DFNB1-associated deafness amongst the Portuguese implanted individuals. DFNB1 status is significantly associated to higher oral performance scores, with DFNB1 individuals performing, on average, 6% better than the individuals without DFNB1-associated deafness.
from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
Exploring wh-questions in agrammatism: Evidence from Greek
This study investigates the ability of three Greek-speaking agrammatic patients to produce and comprehend wh-questions by means of a wh-question elicitation task and a picture-pointing task. The role of question type is explored by comparing argument with adjunct questions and subject with object questions. Overall, production was found significantly more impaired than comprehension. The agrammatic participants had better performance on argument than on adjunct questions, while no dissociation was observed between subject and object questions. The overall difficulty with wh-questions indicates that the agrammatic participants had a deficit in syntactic movement or in handling CP, a finding which is compatible with other cross-linguistic results. Although this finding could be accounted for by existing hypotheses, an alternative account is proposed, according to which wh-questions are difficult to process because they are associated with LF-interpretable features, which increase their processing load. Finally, the preponderance of argument over adjunct questions reinforces the (double) dissociation between these two question types reported in the literature, while the lack of a dissociation between the subject- and the object-questions suggests that both question types involve syntactic movement to CP.
from the Journal of Neurolinguistics
Cortical speech processing unplugged: a timely subcortico-cortical framework
Speech is inherently tied to time. This fundamental quality has long been deemed secondary, and has consequently not received appropriate recognition in speech processing models. We develop an integrative speech processing framework by synthesizing evolutionary, anatomical and neurofunctional concepts of auditory, temporal and speech processing. These processes converge in a network that extends cortical speech processing systems with cortical and subcortical systems associated with motor control. This subcortico-cortical multifunctional network is based on temporal processing and predictive coding of events to optimize interactions between the organism and the environment. The framework we outline provides a novel perspective on speech processing and has implications for future studies on learning, proficient use, and developmental and acquired disorders of speech production and perception.
Conceptualizing the New Frontier in Preventative and Therapeutic Semantic Interventions for Young Children Living in Poverty
In this article, the author discusses research that addresses semantically related reading issues for children in poverty. In addition to providing a theoretical framework, the author provides research-based intervention strategies and suggestions for speech-language pathologists to improve remediation efforts on vocabulary development, particularly in the area of semantic representation, for children who are at risk for developing reading disabilities.
Language Acquisition Challenges for Preschoolers Residing in Low-SES Households: Implications for Speech-language Pathologists and Developmental Researchers
Young children who reside in low-socioeconomic households are at considerable risk for delays in their rate of language acquisition. Large numbers of these children, whose cultural and linguistic systems differ from mainstream culture and the versions of American English associated with prestige, evidence not just language variations when contrasted with their middle-SES peers, but lifelong disparities in their neurocognitive and language outcomes. Identification and assessment issues with this unique, underserved, population may be especially challenging for speech-language pathologists.
On Designing Effective Caregiver Training Programs for Low Income Families
In this article, we describe Tips About Talk, a group-based prevention program we created to increase low-income caregivers’ knowledge and use of positive talking strategies to facilitate their children’s speech, language, and literacy skills. Following this, we present findings from a study that evaluated the effectiveness of the program and describe the changes we have made to our services based on these findings.
Semantically Related Reading Issues for Children From Low Income Environments
In this article, the authors discuss research that addresses semantically related reading issues for children in poverty. In addition to providing a theoretical framework, the authors provide research-based intervention strategies and suggestions for speech-language pathologists to use to improve remediation efforts on vocabulary development, particularly in the area of semantic representation, for children who are at risk for developing reading disabilities.
How private is your consultation? Acoustic and audiological measures of speech privacy in the otolaryngology clinic
The right to confidentiality is a central tenet of the doctor–patient relationship. In the United Kingdom this right to confidentiality is recognised in published GMC guidance. In USA the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) strengthened the legal requirement to protect patient information in all forms and failure to do so now constitutes a federal offence. The aims of this study are to assess the acoustic privacy of an otolaryngology outpatient consultation room. Acoustic privacy was measured using the articulation index (AI) and Bamford-Kowal-Bench (BKB) speech discrimination tests. BKB speech tests were calibrated to normal conversational volume (50 dB SPL). Both AI and BKB were calculated in four positions around the ENT clinic: within the consultation room, outside the consulting room door, in the nearest waiting area chair and in the farthest waiting area chair. Tests were undertaken with the clinic room door closed and open to assess the effect on privacy. With the clinic room door closed, mean BKB scores in nearest and farthest waiting area chairs were 51 and 41% respectively. AI scores in the waiting area chairs were 0.03 and 0.02. With the clinic room door open, privacy was lost in both AI and BKB testing, with almost 100% of word discernable at normal talking levels. The results of this study highlight the poor level of speech privacy within a standard ENT outpatient department. AI is a poor predictor or privacy.
Brief Report: Memory Performance on the California Verbal Learning Test – Children’s Version in Autism Spectrum Disorder
According to the Task Support Hypothesis (TSH; Bowler et al. in Neuropsychologia 35:65–70, 1997) individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) perform more similarly to their typically developing peers on learning and memory tasks when provided with external support at retrieval. We administered the California Verbal Learning Test-Children’s Version to 15 high-functioning youths with ASD and 15 matched comparison participants. Although ASD and comparison participants had comparable levels of overall performance, the ASD group, but not the comparison group, improved significantly from free to cued recall, providing support for the TSH. These results indicate that verbal memory performance in youths with ASD is relatively intact, but may be facilitated by external supports.
Speech-induced primary lingual dystonia: a rare focal dystonia
Lingual dystonia, a type of focal dystonia that may be primary or secondary, is related to brain damage, neuroleptic use, neurodegenerative, metabolic, and neurodevelopmental disorders, varicella infection, and so on. However, primary lingual dystonia induced by speaking is a rare type of focal dystonia that is usually idiopathic in origin and is characterized by increased tonus of the tongue, which causes protrusion only during speaking. This report describes a 55-year-old male patient with lingual dystonia during speech. One interesting clinical feature of this case was that the speech disturbance improved while the patient vocalized a praise-like hymn in a manner that resembled singing.
Reading fluency and speech perception speed of beginning readers with persistent reading problems: the perception of initial stop consonants and consonant clusters
This study investigated the role of speech perception accuracy and speed in fluent word decoding of reading disabled (RD) children. A same-different phoneme discrimination task with natural speech tested the perception of single consonants and consonant clusters by young but persistent RD children. RD children were slower than chronological age (CA) controls in recognizing identical sounds, suggesting less distinct phonemic categories. In addition, after controlling for phonetic similarity Tallal’s (Brain Lang 9:182–198, 1980) fast transitions account of RD children’s speech perception problems was contrasted with Studdert-Kennedy’s (Read Writ Interdiscip J 15:5–14, 2002) similarity explanation. Results showed no specific RD deficit in perceiving fast transitions. Both phonetic similarity and fast transitions influenced accurate speech perception for RD children as well as CA controls.
from the Annals of Dyslexia
An unusual case of cotton wool use to improve hearing
Conclusion: The mechanism of the hearing improvement observed in this case is unknown, but is likely to be related to sound amplification from the relatively large surface area of the cotton wool to the smaller oval window.
from the Journal of Laryngology and Otology
Cochlear implant patients’ speech understanding in background noise: effect of mismatch between electrode assigned frequencies and perceived pitch
Conclusion: The mismatch between frequencies allocated to electrodes and the pitch perceived on stimulation of the same electrodes could partially account for our subjects’ difficulties with speech understanding in noisy conditions. We suggest that these subjects could benefit from mismatch correction, through a procedure allowing individualised reallocation of frequency bands to electrodes.
from the Journal of Laryngology and Otology
