This document describes the national protocol for the selection, fitting, verification, and evaluation of amplifcation for hearing-impaired children in Australia. It also outlines the approach to management of children who have auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder, children who have mild and unilateral hearing loss, and children who require cochlear implantation. Audiological management of all Australian citizens and permanent residents under twenty-one years of age who have a hearing loss is carried out by the national hearing service provider, Australian Hearing. It is funded by the Australian Government’s Hearing Services Program to provide fully subsidised hearing aids, frequency modulated (FM) systems and ongoing audiological management. All hearing aids for children are multi-channel devices that offer wide dynamic range compression, directional microphone technology and feedback cancellation as well as access to multiple listening programs, telecoil and audio-input facilities. Hearing aid gain, frequency response and maximum power output are derived according to the NAL-NL1 prescription procedure and verified using real ear measurements. Amplification benefit is evaluated using a range of speech perception tests and functional assessment questionnaires.

from the International Journal of Audiology

a wide range of image resources is now available in the collection

from the National Library for Health

The body of event-related potential (ERP) literature focusing on children with cochlear implants is growing. By studying ERPs with late latencies (>75 msec), it is possible to (a) document the emergence and quality of higher-order auditory skills prior to when valid behavioral testing is possible, (b) determine the existence of a critical period for auditory stimulation, and (c) establish whether late latency ERPs are predictive of speech and language outcomes. These topics and future directions are addressed in this review of P1 through P600 ERP studies on children with cochlear implants.

from Developmental Neuropsychology

Abstract Play and social abilities of a group of children diagnosed with high functioning autism were compared to a second group diagnosed with a variety of developmental language disorders (DLD). The children with autism engaged in fewer acts of high level play. The children with autism also had significantly lower social functioning than the DLD group early in the play session; however, these differences were no longer apparent by the end of the play session. In addition, a significant association existed between play and social functioning regardless of diagnosis. This suggests that play may act as a current indicator of social ability while providing an arena for social skills practice.

from the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Conclusions: The CLQT is a valuable instrument in assessing cognitive dysfunction in PD. The CLQT is superior to the MMSE as it also provides cognitive domain-specific information

from the Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology

Conclusions and significance
The results suggest mild dysfunction of cortical–subcortical and cerebellar structures involved in the control of these eye movements. Particularly deficits for vertical pursuit eye movements and fixation instability in line with cerebellar signs. Further studies of more patients with or without modulated tinnitus are in progress.

from Auris Nasus Larynx

Conclusions
: Results suggest that listeners may benefit more from visual information from speakers with poor baseline speech intelligibility. Results also show similar intelligibility between typical, laryngeal and tracheoesophageal modes of speech. Results should be interpreted with caution, however, as only one speaker from each mode of speech was included. Further research is required to determine the nature of the increase.

from the Journal of Communication Disorders

Visual-cognitive loads influence the effectiveness of word prediction technology. Adjusting parameters of word prediction programs can lessen visual-cognitive loads. This study evaluated the benefits of WordQ word prediction software for users’ performance when the prediction window was moved to a personal digital assistant (PDA) device placed at the keyboard level. Twenty-one young people aged 11-14 (11 new users and 10 experienced users) participated in the study. The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure was used to measure users’ self-ratings of performance and satisfaction. Results of two-tailed paired t-tests reveal significantly (p < .05) higher performance and satisfaction ratings when the word prediction list was displayed on the PDA. Users reported that it was easier to look for the words at the keyboard level and to select words directly from the PDA. Visual comparisons of the users' typing speed and accuracy show that experienced users had faster typing rates and new users appeared to have better accuracy when they typed with WordQon the PDA display. Further studies with larger samples of individuals with different diagnoses and ages are required to confirm the benefit of using a PDA display in enhancing typing rate and accuracy.

from the Assistive Technology

Semantic short-term memory (STM) deficits have been traditionally defined as an inability to maintain semantic representations over a delay (R. Martin, Shelton & Yaffee, 1994). Yet some patients with semantic STM deficits make numerous intrusions of items from previously presented lists, thus presenting an interesting paradox: Why should an inability to maintain semantic representations produce an increase in intrusions from earlier lists? In this study, we investigated the relationship between maintenance deficits and susceptibility to interference in a group of 20 aphasic patients characterized with weak semantic or weak phonological STM. Patients and matched control participants performed a modified item-recognition task designed to elicit semantic or phonological interference from list items located one, two, or three trials back (Hamilton & R. Martin, 2007). Controls demonstrated significant effects of interference in both versions of the task. Interference in patients was predicted by the type and severity of their STM deficit; that is, shorter semantic spans were associated with greater semantic interference and shorter phonological spans were associated with greater phonological interference. We interpret these results through a new perspective, the reactivation hypothesis, and we discuss their importance for accounts emphasizing the contribution of maintenance mechanisms for STM impairments in aphasia as well as susceptibility to interference.

from Neuropsychologia

The old saying by Van Riper (with a nod to Winston Churchill), that stuttering is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, is well known. While it would be preposterous for any of us to state that, 40 years later, we now have solved the riddle, we can say with a great degree of confidence that advances in scientific inquiry have brought us closer to understanding the factors that may trigger the onset, development, and/or maintenance of stuttering. Nevertheless, much still needs to be learned, because the riddle still poses many challenges. For instance, we do not fully understand why developmental stuttering starts somewhere between 2 and 9 years of age, but onset after puberty is rarely if ever seen (other than neurogenic stuttering, but that is a different story), or why boys are more likely to develop chronic stuttering than girls are.

from Perspectives on Fluency and Fluency Disorders

This case report describes a 10-year-old boy who presented with comorbid stuttering, ADHD, and Tourette Syndrome. The focus of this case study is the child’s favorable reaction to the non-stimulant Strattera® versus the stimulant Adderall XR® on stuttering behaviors. The family reported increased stuttering, tic behaviors, social anxiety, and communication-related frustration resulting in social isolation shortly after starting the stimulant medication. Consequently, the medical team discontinued the stimulant medication and prescribed the non-stimulant Strattera® to manage the ADHD symptoms. After initiating the non-stimulant medication, the family reported an increased willingness to interact with peers and reduced aggressiveness while interacting with family members. Compared to the disfluency rate and speech patterning from the first evaluation, the child demonstrated a 63% reduction in disfluency rate and a 51% reduction in the proportion of speech behaviors typical of stuttering. However, the non-stimulant medication was linked with a noticeable increase in impulsivity and decrease in attention/focusing in the academic setting.

from Perspectives on Fluency and Fluency Disorders

Previous research suggests that people who stutter (PWS) tend to have heightened general anxiety (i.e., trait anxiety) and situational anxiety (i.e., state anxiety) compared to people who do not stutter (PWDS). Most research with anxiety and stuttering utilizes self-perception scales; however, few studies have looked at anxiety over time. The current study examined self-reported state and trait anxiety in PWS and PWDS over six weeks, along with an investigation of the effects of audio-recording on anxiety. Results indicated no significant group differences in trait (general) anxiety over six weeks; however trends indicated that PWS may have increased trait anxiety compared to PWDS. Furthermore, for both groups, state (situational) anxiety was lower after a recording session compared to before.

from Perspectives on Fluency and Fluency Disorders

The purpose of this article is to describe research-based reading intervention within a Response-to-Intervention (RTI) model, using prevention science as a context. First, RTI is defined and a rationale is provided for its use in improving the reading performance of all students, particularly those students identified as at risk for reading-related learning disabilities. Next, reading risk is defined and discussed, including prevalence, antecedents, and how risk is assessed through universal screening and progress monitoring. Existing literature on the use of RTI models in reading is summarized, including small- and large-scale implementation studies. Finally, future research directions in the area of reading within an RTI model are discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

from Psychology in the Schools

A previous study revealed that reliable assessment of dysarthria was feasible. However, that study also revealed a number of system limitations and suggested that technological enhancements and improvements in study design and clinical assessment protocols were needed before validity and reliability of assessment of dysarthria via telerehabilitation could be confirmed. In the current study, improvements in technology, study design, and clinical assessment protocols were implemented in order to re-examine the validity and reliability of assessing and diagnosing dysarthria via the telerehabilitation medium. The aim of this study was to explore the validity and reliability of assessing dysarthria using both formal standardized and informal assessments via a purpose-built telerehabilitation system. Twenty-four participants with an acquired dysarthria were assessed simultaneously via telerehabilitation and face-to-face (FTF) on a battery of assessments. A custom-built telerehabilitation system enabled real-time telerehabilitation assessment over a 128 Kbps Internet connection. Data analysis included an analysis of strength of agreement between the two methods using percentage agreement and weighted Κ statistics. Inter-rater and intrarater reliability were also examined for both the FTF and telerehabilitation-led assessments. Good strength of agreement was found between the FTF and telerehabilitation assessment methods. High intrarater and inter-rater reliability within both the FTF and telerehabilitation assessment methods supported these findings. Participants reported high overall satisfaction in the telerehabilitation environment. This study describes the improvements made to the telerehabilitation system reported previously and confirms that valid and reliable assessment of dysarthria using both standardized and informal assessments over the Internet is possible using this system.

from Telemedicine and e-Health

Personnel shortages have been a persistent challenge in the field of special education. In particular, shortages in the ranks of speech-language pathologists have been acute for many years. The inability to recruit and retain speech-language pathologists may result in underserving a vulnerable and growing student population. Although there are various reasons for these shortages, a predominant rationale has been poor working conditions, especially large, unmanageable caseloads and increasing administrative paperwork requirements. Proponents of a new methodology for establishing caseload configurations, called workload analysis, claim that this will improve recruitment and retention of speech-language pathologists. This article considers the source, application of, and empirical evidence relating to workload analysis. The conclusion is that there is insufficient evidence to support the claims. A direction for further research on the issue is presented.

from the Journal of Disability Policy Studies

Inspired by research that showed users’ difficulty operating hearing aid controls, industrial design firm Stuart Karten Design (SKD) and Starkey Laboratories, Inc. have developed the first hearing aid to bring touch technology, which has revolutionized the consumer electronics industry, to a medical device.

from PRWeb.com

Laryngeal cancer (cancer of the larynx) is a rare type of cancer. It can cause hoarseness of the voice and swelling of the throat.

from Medical News Today.com

In a move to make YouTube’s massive inventory more accessible to deaf and hearing-impaired people, Google announced plans to add automatic captioning technology to the video site. Google has combined its automatic speech-recognition technology with the existing YouTube caption system. Called auto-caps for short, the captions rely on the same voice-recognition algorithms in Google Voice to automatically generate captions for YouTube videos.

fromSci-Tech Today.com

StreamWorks Products Group, Inc. (SPG), renowned for developing innovative consumer products across several industries, has announced that its new PlugsSafety™ division, a cutting-edge line of hearing protection solutions, has contracted with seven regional sales groups across the country to establish a nationwide sales force following the tremendous debut of the company’s newest product, Zip-Outs™.

from News-Medical.net

Data from the third wave (2003—2004) of the Special Education Elementary Longitudinal Study are used to generate nationally representative estimates of current school and classroom placements of elementary school—aged students who are African American and profoundly deaf. These students are found to have less access to regular schools and less access to typical classroom placements within schools than their White peers.

from the Journal of Disability Policy Studies

Despite evidence from previous studies that support using Social StoriesTM for problem behaviors, research conducted with more rigorous controls is needed to examine whether or not Social Stories constitute an evidence-based practice.This study employed an ABABCBC single-subject design comparing a Social Story presented in two formats across three elementary-age students with autism. Interpretation of the results documents a decrease in the frequency of problem behavior for each participant. Outcomes were slightly better for the PowerPointTM format than for the paper format. Results were maintained in the training setting and were generalized to another setting with a single verbal prompt. Teachers reported that the PowerPoint format was easily implemented, and students indicated that they liked the computer-assisted format.

from Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities

Discrete trial instruction (DTI) was used to teach functional skills to three children with Angelman syndrome, a neurogenetic disorder that overlaps with autism and is associated with severe cognitive, speech, and motor impairments. Children received individual DTI teaching sessions 2 to 3 times per week over a 12-month period and displayed differing rates and patterns of skill development. Parents expressed positive views toward the DTI methods and their clinical outcomes. The results of this case series provide preliminary data suggesting that these strategies are appropriate for building functional skills in some children with Angelman syndrome and possibly other groups of children with severe/profound intellectual disability with different etiologies.

from Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities

Languages such as Swedish use suprasegmental information such as tone, over and above segments, to mark lexical contrast. Theories differ with respect to the abstractness and specification of tone in the mental lexicon. In a forced choice task, we tested Swedish listeners’ responses to words with segmentally identical first syllables differing in tonal contours (characterized as Accents 1 and 2). We assumed Accent 1 to be lexically specified for a subset of words and hypothesized that this specification would speed up word accent identification. As was predicted, listeners were fastest in choosing the tonally correct word when the accent was lexically specified. We conclude that the processing of surface tonal contours is governed by their underlying lexical structure with tonal specification.

from

Frequency- and amplitude-modulated (FM and AM) sounds are the building blocks of complex sounds. In the present study, we investigated the ability of human observers to process spatial information in an important class of FM sounds: broadband directional sweeps common in natural communication signals such as speech. The stimuli consisted of linear or logarithmic unidirectional FM pulses that swept either up or down in frequency at various rates. Spatial localization thresholds monotonically improved as sweep duration decreased and as sweep rate increased, but no difference in performance was observed between logarithmic and linear or between up- and down-frequency sweeps. Counterintuitive reversals in localization were observed which suggested that the localization of high-frequency sweeps may be strongly dominated by amplitude information even in situations in which one might consider timing cues to be critical. Implications of these findings for the localization of complex sounds are discussed.

from Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

Stochastic resonance is a mechanism that improves the detection of weak periodic signals when an optimal level of background noise is present. This counterintuitive concept is thought to involve a cooperative effect that arises out of a physical coupling between deterministic and random dynamics in nonlinear systems. We report the results of three psychophysical experiments designed to probe the auditory system for evidence of stochastic resonance. In all three experiments, participants judged which of two 1000-Hz tones was greater in intensity, with one of the tones embedded in a background of Gaussian noise. Experiment 1 used a two-alternative forced choice task and provided evidence of enhanced discriminability at an optimal level of noise. The aim of Experiment 2 was to determine whether the apparent enhancement observed in Experiment 1 was due to sensory processes or to a response bias. Receiver operating characteristic analysis supported an explanation based on decision processes, rather than a genuine sensory enhancement. An additional experiment (Experiment 3) was used to discount experimental artifacts.

from Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

All sounds are multidimensional, yet the relationships among auditory dimensions have been studied only infrequently. General recognition theory (GRT; Ashby & Townsend, 1986) is a multidimensional generalization of signal detection theory and, as such, provides powerful tools well suited to the study of the relationships among perceptual dimensions. However, previous uses of GRT have been limited in serious ways. We present methods designed to overcome these limitations, and we use these methods to apply GRT to investigations of the relationships among auditory perceptual dimensions that previous work suggests are independent (frequency, duration) or not (fundamental frequency [f0], spectral shape). Results from Experiment 1 confirm that frequency and duration do not interact decisionally, and they extend this finding with evidence of perceptual independence. Results from Experiment 2 show that f0 and spectral shape tend to interact perceptually, decisionally, or both, and that perceptual interactions occur within, but not between, stimuli (i.e., the interactions suggest correlated noise across processing channels corresponding to perceptually separable dimensions). The results are discussed in relation to lower level sensory modeling and higher level cognitive and linguistic issues.

from Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

This article is a review of the psychophysical study of pitch perception. The history of the study of pitch has seen a continual competition between spectral and temporal theories of pitch perception. The pitch of complex stimuli is likely based on the temporal regularities in a sound’s waveform, with the strongest pitches occurring for stimuli with low-frequency components. Thus, temporal models, especially those based on autocorrelation-like processes, appear to account for the majority of the data.

from Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics

Differentiating balance disorder patients who are malingering from those with organic balance disorders is difficult and costly. We used trunk sway measured during several stance and gait tasks in 18 patients suspected of malingering in order to differentiate these from 20 patients who had suffered unilateral vestibular loss 3 months earlier, 20 patients with documented whiplash injuries, and 34 healthy controls. Classification results ranged from 72 to 96% and were equally accurate for task or criteria variables based on 90% sway values. The tasks yielding the best discrimination were: standing with eyes closed on a foam and firm surface; standing with eyes open on a firm surface; standing on 1 leg; and walking tandem steps. The criteria yielding the best discrimination were: standing with eyes open on a firm surface; the difference between standing with eyes closed on foam and firm surfaces; the difference between walking tandem steps and standing on 1 leg with eyes open; and the difference between roll and pitch velocity when walking 8 tandem steps. We conclude that discriminating suspected malingering balance disorder patients is possible using variables or criteria based on objective measures of trunk sway during several stance and gait tasks.

from Audiology & Neuro-Otology

The auditory system is capable of perceptually restoring inaudible portions of speech. This restoration may be compromised as a result of hearing impairment, particularly if it is combined with advanced age, because of degradations in the bottom-up and top-down processes. To test this hypothesis, phonemic restoration was quantitatively measured with hearing-impaired listeners of varying ages and degrees of hearing impairment, as well as with a normal-hearing control group. The results showed that the restoration benefit was negatively correlated with both hearing impairment and age, supporting the original hypothesis. Group data showed that listeners with mild hearing loss were able to perceptually restore the missing speech segments as well as listeners in the normal-hearing group. By contrast, the moderately-impaired group showed no evidence of perceptual restoration. Further analysis using the articulation index showed that listeners with mild hearing loss were able to restore speech better as the audibility improved. Moderately-impaired listeners, on the other hand, were unable to do so, even when the articulation index was high. The overall findings suggest that, in addition to insufficient audibility, degradations in the bottom-up and/or top-down mechanisms as a result of hearing loss may limit or entirely prevent phonemic restoration.

from Hearing Research

Conclusions Voice prosthesis complications are more frequently encountered in those who require salvage laryngectomy. Understanding the potential for such complications reinforces the need for close communication and follow-up with these patients by the speech language pathologist.

from Acta Oto-Laryngologica

Conclusions: The results indicate that unilateral stroke of either cerebral hemisphere can produce dysphagia. Effective recovery is associated with cerebral activation related to cortical swallowing representation in the compensating or recruited areas of the intact hemisphere. Functional MRI is a useful method for exploring the spatial localisation of changes in neuronal activity during tasks that may be related to recovery. Therefore, the subsequent information gleaned from changes in neural plasticity could be useful for assessing the prognosis of dysphagic stroke.

from the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry

The programmed cell death of stress-damaged auditory hair cells can occur through a variety of signal pathways, and therapeutic modalities that block pro-cell-death pathways are being developed and evaluated for hearing preservation. Because of their ability to have both anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic actions, corticosteroids have long been used to protect against several types of acute sensorineural hearing loss. Other anti-apoptotic drugs that target the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/c-Jun-N terminal kinase (JNK) signal cascade, such as D-JNKI-1 (AM-111) and SP600125, have produced promising results both in vitro and in laboratory animal studies, with AM-111 showing promise in preliminary clinical trials. Antioxidant drugs, e.g. sodium thiosulfate, N-acetylcysteine, and D-methionine, have been shown in animal studies to attenuate permanent threshold shifts in hearing by reducing oxidative stress. In addition to reviewing selected therapeutic trends for the conservation of hearing, we review our experiences with dexamethasone and D-JNKI-1 and report results from our current research.

from Audiology & Neuro-Otology

The thermo-reversible triblock copolymer poloxamer 407 was investigated as a drug delivery vehicle for micronized dexamethasone into the middle and inner ears of guinea pigs. The study characterized the gelation and in vitro release kinetics of poloxamer formulations. In vivo, the pharmacokinetic profile of formulations containing varying concentrations of poloxamer and dexamethasone was examined following intratympanic administration. Significant drug levels within the perilymph were observed for at least 10 days, while systemic exposure was minimal. The sustained-release kinetics profile could be significantly modulated by varying the concentrations of both poloxamer and dexamethasone. Assessment of auditory function revealed a small transient shift in hearing threshold, most probably of conductive nature, which resolved itself within a week. No significant histological changes of the round window membrane or cochlea could be noted. Poloxamer 407 thus represents an effective and safe delivery system to achieve sustained release of dexamethasone to the inner ear.

from Audiology & Neuro-Otology

The aim of this study was to correlate long-term vertigo control with reduction in vestibular function after intratympanic (IT) gentamicin therapy for unilateral Ménière’s disease. IT gentamicin injections were given as needed to control vertigo attacks. Vertigo frequency and changes in angular vestibulo-ocular reflex (AVOR) gain (measured using magnetic search coils and manual head thrusts) and caloric weakness were assessed before and after treatment. Better vertigo control after treatment was found with 60% reduction in quantitative ipsilateral horizontal semicircular canal AVOR gain from pre-treatment values and/or with caloric unilateral weakness (UW) >50%. However, no correlations were found between the continuous variables of vertigo control and either gain or gain recovery, nor between gain and UW because of the large variability in vertigo control in subjects with lesser reductions in these measures.

from Audiology & Neuro-Otology

The auditory system is capable of perceptually restoring inaudible portions of speech. This restoration may be compromised as a result of hearing impairment, particularly if it is combined with advanced age, because of degradations in the bottom-up and top-down processes. To test this hypothesis, phonemic restoration was quantitatively measured with hearing-impaired listeners of varying ages and degrees of hearing impairment, as well as with a normal-hearing control group. The results showed that the restoration benefit was negatively correlated with both hearing impairment and age, supporting the original hypothesis. Group data showed that listeners with mild hearing loss were able to perceptually restore the missing speech segments as well as listeners in the normal-hearing group. By contrast, the moderately-impaired group showed no evidence of perceptual restoration. Further analysis using the articulation index showed that listeners with mild hearing loss were able to restore speech better as the audibility improved. Moderately-impaired listeners, on the other hand, were unable to do so, even when the articulation index was high. The overall findings suggest that, in addition to insufficient audibility, degradations in the bottom-up and/or top-down mechanisms as a result of hearing loss may limit or entirely prevent phonemic restoration.

from Hearing Research

The purpose of this investigation was to gain an understanding of the challenges of teaching non-speaking learners with intellectual disabilities and the scope of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) used in primary school settings in Gaborone, Botswana. A qualitative interview methodology was used to investigate the experiences of 11 special educators working with non-speaking learners with intellectual disabilities. Participants of the study revealed that teaching non-speaking students with intellectual disabilities is challenging. The study further showed that AAC systems were not widely used in Botswana, and that teachers lacked knowledge and skills. Nevertheless, the participants recognised the importance of AAC in enhancing the functional communication skills of the non-speaking learners with intellectual disabilities. Based on the findings recommendations are made to pave the way forward.

from the International Journal of Disability, Development and Education

Abstract The present study examined intake data from 384 participants with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and a comparison group of 100 participants with dyslexia on nine standardized measures of decoding and comprehension. Although diagnostic groups were based on parental reports and could not be verified independently, we were able to observe significant distinctions between subject groups. Overall findings confirm previous results of a disassociation between decoding and comprehension in ASD. Using a larger sample than previous studies and a greater variety of measures, a pattern of relatively intact decoding skills paired with low comprehension was found in autism, PDD-NOS, and Asperger’s. In contrast, the dyslexic group showed the opposite pattern of stronger comprehension and weaker decoding.

from the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders

Re-telling a story is thought to produce a progressive refinement in the mental representation of the discourse. A neuroanatomical substrate for this compression effect, however, has yet to be identified. We used a discourse re-listening task and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify brain regions responsive to repeated discourse in twenty healthy volunteers. We found a striking difference in the pattern of activation associated with the first and subsequent presentations of the same story relative to rest. The first presentation was associated with a highly significant increase in blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal in a bilateral perisylvian distribution, including auditory cortex. Listening to the same story on subsequent occasions revealed a wider network with activation extending into frontal, parietal, and subcortical structures. When the first and final presentations of the same story were directly compared, significant increments in activation were found in the middle frontal gyrus bilaterally, and the right inferior parietal lobule, suggesting that the spread of activation with re-listening reflected an active neural process over and above that required for comprehension of the text. Within the right inferior parietal region the change in BOLD signal was highly correlated with a behavioural index of discourse compression based in re-telling, providing converging evidence for the role of the right inferior parietal region in the representation of discourse. Our findings demonstrate, for the first time, the existence of a neural network underlying discourse compression, showing that parts of this network are common to re-telling and re-listening effects.

from Neuropsychologia

Could a mutation in a single gene be the evolutionary lynchpin supporting the development of human language? A rare mutation in the molecule known as FOXP2 discovered in a human family seemed to suggest so, and its sequence phylogeny reinforced a Chomskian view that language emerged wholesale in humans. Spurred by this discovery, research in primates, rodents and birds suggests that FoxP2 and other language-related genes are interactors in the neuromolecular networks that underlie subsystems of language, such symbolic understanding, vocal learning and theory of mind. The whole picture will only come together through comparative and integrative study into how the human language singularity evolved.

from Brain and Language

The mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the auditory event-related potential can be used to study automatic perceptual inference. This study was designed to explore “Conditional Inference” in the MMN system – the capacity of the auditory system to use current input to switch between inference models in memory. We presented a “Random” sequence comprising a standard repeating sound occasionally interrupted by a change in frequency, duration or intensity (louder or softer). We also presented the same sequence with a conditional linkage between deviants – that is, frequency and duration deviants always followed an intensity change. We explored whether the auditory system could use intensity deviance to change the inference from “expect the standard to repeat” to “expect a frequency or duration violation” and quantified this as the proportion decline in the MMN elicited to duration and frequency deviant sounds in the linked versus random sequence. We report three main outcomes on a sample of 25 healthy young adults: (1) there was a significant conditional inference effect (a reduction in MMN amplitude in linked versus random sequences) to duration but not frequency deviants; (2) larger simple MMN and larger conditional inference effect on duration MMN were correlated with higher Digit Span; and (3) the conditional inference effect but not simple MMN to duration deviants, was strongly correlated with working memory ability (rs=.78, p<.001). The results are discussed with respect to the differential cognitive demands of simple MMN and conditional inference, and the possible involvement of prefrontal cortex in implementing conditional inference in the MMN system.

from Brain Research

The body of event-related potential (ERP) literature focusing on children with cochlear implants is growing. By studying ERPs with late latencies (>75 msec), it is possible to (a) document the emergence and quality of higher-order auditory skills prior to when valid behavioral testing is possible, (b) determine the existence of a critical period for auditory stimulation, and (c) establish whether late latency ERPs are predictive of speech and language outcomes. These topics and future directions are addressed in this review of P1 through P600 ERP studies on children with cochlear implants.

from Developmental Neuropsychology

Technology is changing the way speech, language and hearing therapy is delivered and speech pathology graduate programs across the country are starting to incorporate therapy techniques via videoconferencing into their curriculum. Professor Gail Ramsberger, chair of the Speech, Language Hearing Sciences at the University of Colorado has taken steps to begin teaching graduate courses on how technology can provide treatment while also utilizing teletherapy to treat aphasia patients. Rambsberger is the resident expert on Aphasia at CU which is an acquired disorder of language processing that wreaks havoc on a person’s capability to create and understand sentences, phrases or even correct words.

from Presence TeleCare

The notion that young children form and test hypotheses about early print is well established in relation to children from different cultures who use different languages. This study demonstrates that this also obtains for young deaf children still in the early stages of developing spoken language. Data collected from the homes of 13 deaf children (aged from 3 years 3 months to 4 years 4 months at the start of the study) over a two-year period showed hypothesising and experimenting around writing. Spontaneous drawing and writing samples were collected and a method of eliciting data was devised that did not rely on the children knowing vocabulary related to print (e.g. word or sentence). The data revealed that these children had internalised print concepts but this knowledge could easily be overlooked. Implications for educational settings are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

from Deafness and Education International

Abstract This study investigated the effects of syntactic complexity on written sentence comprehension in compensated adults with dyslexia. Because working memory (WM) plays a key role in processing complex sentences, and individuals with dyslexia often demonstrate persistent deficits in WM, we hypothesized that individuals with dyslexia would perform more poorly on tasks designed to assess the comprehension of syntactic structures that are especially taxing on WM (e.g., passives, sentences with relative clauses). Compared to their nondyslexic peers, individuals with dyslexia were significantly less accurate and marginally slower on passive sentences. For sentences containing relative clauses, the dyslexic group was also less accurate but did not differ in response times. Covarying WM and word reading in both analyses eliminated group differences showing that syntactic deficits in adults with dyslexia are constrained by both WM and word-reading ability. These findings support previous research showing that syntactic processing deficits are characteristic of dyslexia, even among high-achieving students.

from the Annals of Dyslexia

Traditional models of adult language processing and production include two levels of representation: lexical and sublexical. The current study examines the influence of the inclusion of a lexical representation (i.e. a visual referent and/or object function) on the stability of articulation as well as on phonetic accuracy and variability in typically developing children and children with specific language impairment (SLI). A word learning paradigm was developed so that we could compare children’s production with and without lexical representation. The variability and accuracy of productions were examined using speech kinematics as well as traditional phonetic accuracy measures. Results showed that phonetic forms with lexical representation were produced with more articulatory stability than phonetic forms without lexical representation. Using more traditional transcription measures, a paired lexical referent generally did not influence segmental accuracy (percent consonant correct and type token ratio). These results suggest that lexical and articulatory levels of representation are not completely independent. Implications for models of language production are discussed.

from Developmental Science

Although the aims of contrastive phonology are clear, there are a number of problems connected with the model of description and with the ontological status of phonological accounts of contrastive similarities or differences. This paper illustrates these problems with the oppositions between the series of /p, t, k/ and /b, d, g/ in the contrastive phonology of French versus German. On the basis of a number of perceptual experiments and results from articulation training, a new contrastive description of these sound phenomena is presented, which arrives at a phonological evaluation through a phonetic analysis of performance, rather than predicting performance from the usual phonological categories.

from Phonetica

Conclusion: The TLF cochlear implantation enables complete receiver-stimulator coverage and safe fixation without any additional procedures, while allowing reduced operation time.

from ORL -Journal for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology and Its Related Specialties

HearAtLast Holdings, Inc., a leading provider of suitable affordable solutions to clients with hearing needs in the billion dollar hearing loss market, announced today that Harbinger Research has issued an Investment Report on the Company.

from News-Medical.net

Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue: Audiological Devices – Global Market Trends

from News-Medical.net

The term “swallowing problem” covers many symptoms. More accurately known as “dysphagia,” speech language pathologists are involved in the assessment and treatment of swallowing problems, often in collaboration with other medical specialists.

from Topix.net