Monthly Archives: May 2011
Infants’ Cries May Predict Later Language Development
Babies whose cries lacked complexity at 2 months more likely to have language delays at age 2, study suggests.
from Healthfinder.gov
Straight or Gay? Vowels in Speech May Give it Away
Study found that strangers quickly picked up on sexual orientation via vocal cues.
from Healthfinder.gov
NHS Choices assessment of press reports that “Viagra ‘linked to hearing loss”
The assessment notes that both the Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph’s reports were factually correct, and helpfully included comments from the MHRA, which pointed out that reports of an adverse event to a drug do not prove cause and effect. It concluded that this report is valuable in drawing attention to a possible and serious side effect of sildenafil and other PDE-5 inhibitors, but it is worth pointing out that only eight cases of hearing loss associated with these drugs were reported in the UK.
Arnoldus Van Rhijn on aphasia: A forgotten thesis
Very little work was done on aphasia in the 19th century in the Netherlands. Van Rhijn’s thesis, from an aphasiological point of view of limited value, does show that the notions of “centers”, “connections”, and “disorders due to disconnections” were generally known before Wernicke, also in the Netherlands.
from Cortex
Exploring the roles of the executive and short-term feature-binding functions in retrieval of retrograde autobiographical memories in severe traumatic brain injury
Conway’s autobiographical memory (AM) model postulates that memories are not stored in a crystallised form in long-term memory but are reconstructed at time of retrieval via executive and binding processes, to create a temporary multimodal representation from different AM knowledge. Traumatic brain injury (TBI) impairs AM recollection. However, no study has yet considered the distinct roles of executive and short-term feature-binding functions in the retrieval deficits of retrograde AMs after TBI. Examining a group of 33 TBI patients and 33 controls, our study addresses these roles through a first-ever exploration of the links between performance on an AM verbal fluency evaluation that distinguishes four levels of representation, from semantic to episodic (lifetime periods, general events, specific events, specific details of a specific event), and three executive functions (shifting, inhibition and updating) and two short-term feature-binding functions (short-term formation and maintenance of multimodal representations). The results showed that TBI patients were impaired compared to controls in the retrieval of both semantic and episodic retrograde AM representations, but especially for the most episodic level of AM, in the three executive functions and the short-term maintenance of multimodal representations. Regression analyses indicated that the executive predictors (mainly updating) mediated a large proportion (over 70%) of TBI-related deficit on the retrieval of lifetime periods, general events and specific events, in contrast with the main impairment on generation of specific details which were only mildly (just 12%) predicted by the short-term maintenance of multimodal representations. Additional analyses in a subgroup of patients point to episodic memory abilities and time since injury in predicting the retrieval of specific events and details. In summary, the present study mainly emphasizes that the executive deficits in TBI are involved in the disruption of the first levels of AM generative processes that give access to the multiple episodic details recollection.
from Cortex
Role of the precentral gyrus of the insula in complex articulation
Previous research has suggested that the left anterior insula, specifically the superior precentral gyrus of the insula (SPGI), is a critical brain region for the coordination of complex articulatory movements. However, previous studies have not determined which articulatory factors are specifically dependent on this brain region. In the current study, 33 left hemisphere stroke patients with varying degrees of speech impairment were asked to perform multiple repetitions of single words that varied along three separate dimensions: number of syllables, degree of articulatory travel (i.e., change between places of articulation for consonants), and presence/absence of an initial consonant cluster. The role of the SPGI in performance across the three conditions was determined using voxel-based lesion symptom mapping (VLSM), a statistical approach to lesion analysis that does not require separating patients based on lesion site or symptom profile. Rather, continuous performance data are entered, along with lesions reconstructed in normalized space. Based on preliminary analyses, there was adequate power to detect differences in the SPGI, which was the focus of our predictions. We found that the SPGI was critical for performance on the articulation task across all three conditions, namely, when words were multi-syllabic, required a high degree of travel, or involved an initial consonant cluster. As a control, we also generated a VLSM map for articulation of words with minimal articulatory complexity (i.e., single-syllable words with no initial cluster and a minimal change in place of articulation). In this case, the SPGI was not implicated. The current results suggest that the left SPGI is a critical area for intra- and inter-syllabic coordination of complex articulatory movements, prior to end-stage execution of speech commands.
from Cortex
Cognitive development and down syndrome: age-related change on the stanford-binet test (fourth edition).
Abstract Growth models for subtests of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, 4th edition ( R. L. Thorndike, E. P. Hagen, & J. M. Sattler, 1986a , 1986b ) were developed for individuals with Down syndrome. Models were based on the assessments of 208 individuals who participated in longitudinal and cross-sectional research between 1987 and 2004. Variation in performance among individuals was large and significant across all subtests except Memory for Sentences. Scores on the Memory for Sentences subtest remained low between ages 4 to 30 years. Greatest variation was found on the Pattern Analysis subtest, where scores continued to rise into adulthood. Turning points for scores on the Vocabulary and Comprehension subtests appeared premature relative to normative patterns of development. The authors discuss development at the subdomain level and analyze both individual and group trajectories.
from American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Adult Normative Data for the KayPENTAX Phonatory Aerodynamic System Model 6600
Because age- and gender-related changes were found for some measures, one must account for these two variables when assessing phonatory aerodynamics using the PAS Model 6600. The clinical implications of the findings for the assessment and treatment of individuals with voice disorders using the PAS Model 6600 are discussed.
from the Journal of Voice
Auditory neuropathy/dyssynchrony as a cause of failed neonatal hearing screening
The prevalence of auditory neuropathy/dyssynchrony (AN/AD) is not exactly known. We retrospectively analysed the prevalence of this condition among 135 infants who failed a neonatal screening. Hearing screening was performed by automated auditory brainstem responses (AABR). Unilateral presence of click-evoked oto-acoustic emissions with absent auditory brainstem responses was found in 4 infants. Magnetic resonance imaging of the posterior fossa showed an aplasia/hypoplasia of the ipsilateral cochlear nerve in these 4 cases. The prevalence of AN/AD was 19% in infants with confirmed hearing loss. Our findings underscore the role of AABR in neonatal hearing screening.
from the International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
Brain networks associated with sublexical properties of Chinese characters
Cognitive models of reading all assume some division of labor among processing pathways in mapping among print, sound and meaning. Many studies of the neural basis of reading have used task manipulations such as rhyme or synonym judgment to tap these processes independently. Here we take advantage of specific properties of the Chinese writing system to test how differential availability of sublexical information about sound and meaning, as well as the orthographic structure of characters, pseudo-characters and “artificial” control stimuli influence brain activation in the context of the same one-back task. Analyses combine a data-driven approach that identifies temporally coherent patterns of activity over the course of the entire experiment with hypothesis-testing based on the correlation of these patterns with predictors for different stimulus classes. The results reveal a large network of task-related activity. Both the extent of this network and activity in regions commonly observed in studies of Chinese reading are apparently related to task difficulty. Other regions, including temporo-parietal cortex, were sensitive to particular sublexical functional units in mapping among print, sound, and meaning.
from Brain and Language
Number of sense effects of Chinese disyllabic compounds in the two hemispheres
The current study manipulated the visual field and the number of senses of the first character in Chinese disyllabic compounds to investigate how the related senses (polysemy) of the constituted character in the compounds were represented and processed in the two hemispheres. The ERP results in experiment 1 revealed crossover patterns in the left hemisphere (LH) and the right hemisphere (RH). The sense facilitation in the LH was in favor of the assumption of single-entry representation for senses. However, the patterns in the RH yielded two possible interpretations: (1) the nature of hemispheric processing in dealing with sublexical sense ambiguity; (2) the semantic activation from the separate-entry representation for senses. To clarify these possibilities, experiment 2 was designed to push participants to a deeper level of lexical processing by the word class judgment. The results revealed the sense facilitation effect in the RH. In sum, the current study was in support of the single-entry account for related senses and demonstrated that two hemispheres processed sublexical sense ambiguity in a complementary way.
from Brain and Language
The representation of unattended, segmented sounds: A mismatch negativity (MMN) study
The detection of an irregular, potentially relevant change (deviance) in the regular, unattended acoustic environment is ensured by the automatic deviance detection mechanism. It underlies the formation of a regularity representation and a comparison of an incoming sound with this representation. A mismatch outcome of this comparison evokes the mismatch negativity (MMN) of the event-related potential. For unattended pure tones the automatic deviance detection mechanism operates most efficiently for initial sound parts, which is why these are suggested to contribute more to sound representation than later parts. A transient that physically segments the sounds can overcome this temporal constraint in sound representation. Whether the resulting individual (initial and terminal) sound segments or the joined two-segments give rise to the regularity representation is addressed here. We took advantage that the MMN attenuation to the second of two successive deviances (deviance-repetition effect) is more pronounced when the deviances belong to the same unit of representation. We measured MMN for two deviances (frequency modulations) within segmented sounds that either occurred within the initial or the terminal segment, or that were split across both segments. Unexpectedly, we did not obtain a deviance-repetition effect. Instead, we obtained a temporal distance effect: With increasing temporal distance from deviance-onset relative to segment-onset the MMN amplitude decreased. Furthermore, this effect did not depend on whether the deviance occurred in the initial or in the terminal segment. Thus, (for the current approach) we suggest that the regularity representation is based on the individual rather than joined segments.
The Sensory Consequences of Speaking: Parametric Neural Cancellation during Speech in Auditory Cortex
We conclude that during speaking early auditory cortex is involved in matching external signals with an internally generated model or prediction of sensory consequences, the locus of which may reside in auditory or higher order brain areas. Matching at early auditory cortex may provide a very sensitive monitoring mechanism that highlights speech production errors at very early levels of processing and may efficiently determine the self-agency of speech input.
from PLoS ONE
Including English Learners in a Multitiered Approach to Early Reading Instruction and Intervention
This article reviews the research on and provides a framework for integrating assessment and early reading instruction in a unified tiered approach that includes English language learners (ELLs). The authors begin with a review of the research for implementing the guiding principles of the tiered framework with ELLs, including (a) screening and progress monitoring for ELLs, (b) delivering explicit and systematic reading instruction for ELLs, and (c) structuring reading instruction within a multitiered approach.
