An extensive pattern of atypical neural speech-sound discrimination in newborns at risk of dyslexia

Anja Thiede; Paula Virtala; Iina Ala-Kurikka; Eino Partanen; Minna Huotilainen; Kaija Mikkola; Paavo H T Leppänen; Teija Kujala

doi:10.1016/j.clinph.2019.01.019

An extensive pattern of atypical neural speech-sound discrimination in newborns at risk of dyslexia

Clin Neurophysiol. 2019 May;130(5):634-646. doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2019.01.019. Epub 2019 Feb 12.

Authors

Anja Thiede¹, Paula Virtala², Iina Ala-Kurikka², Eino Partanen³, Minna Huotilainen⁴, Kaija Mikkola⁵, Paavo H T Leppänen⁶, Teija Kujala²

Affiliations

¹ Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, P.O. Box 21, 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: anja.thiede@helsinki.fi.
² Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, P.O. Box 21, 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
³ Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, P.O. Box 21, 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN), Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Nørrebrogade 44, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
⁴ Cognitive Brain Research Unit, Department of Psychology and Logopedics, Faculty of Medicine, P.O. Box 21, 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; CICERO Learning Network, Faculty of Education, P.O. Box 9, 00014 University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
⁵ Children's Hospital, Department of Pediatrics and Neonatology, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, PB 800, 00029 Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
⁶ Department of Psychology, P.O. Box 35, 40014 University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland.

PMID: 30870799
DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2019.01.019

Abstract

Objective: Identifying early signs of developmental dyslexia, associated with deficient speech-sound processing, is paramount to establish early interventions. We aimed to find early speech-sound processing deficiencies in dyslexia, expecting diminished and atypically lateralized event-related potentials (ERP) and mismatch responses (MMR) in newborns at dyslexia risk.

Methods: ERPs were recorded to a pseudoword and its variants (vowel-duration, vowel-identity, and syllable-frequency changes) from 88 newborns at high or no familial risk. The response significance was tested, and group, laterality, and frontality effects were assessed with repeated-measures ANOVA.

Results: An early positive and right-lateralized ERP component was elicited by standard pseudowords in both groups, the response amplitude not differing between groups. Early negative MMRs were absent in the at-risk group, and MMRs to duration changes diminished compared to controls. MMRs to vowel changes had significant laterality × group interactions resulting from right-lateralized MMRs in controls.

Conclusions: The MMRs of high-risk infants were absent or diminished, and morphologically atypical, suggesting atypical neural speech-sound discrimination.

Significance: This atypical neural basis for speech discrimination may contribute to impaired language development, potentially leading to future reading problems.

Keywords: Auditory; Dyslexia; Event-related potential (ERP); Mismatch response (MMR); Newborn; Speech sound.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Acoustic Stimulation
Auditory Cortex / physiopathology*
Dyslexia / diagnosis*
Dyslexia / physiopathology
Electroencephalography
Evoked Potentials, Auditory / physiology*
Female
Humans
Infant, Newborn
Male
Phonetics*
Speech
Speech Perception / physiology*