Browsing by Author "Juntunen, Heidi"

Objectives: Dyslexia is a specific reading disorder with a neurobiological and heritable background. Delayed language development and deficient phonological processing have been associated with dyslexia. These linguistic difficulties may relate to atypical speech perception already in early childhood, which could offer a basis for an early identification of dyslexia risk and the development of interventions. In the current study, neural discrimination of speech features was studied in children with a familial risk of dyslexia using the mismatch response (MMR; mismatch negativity, MMN). The aim of the current study was to examine if MMR is atypical in children at risk of dyslexia, and if MMN responses are associated with early language abilities. Methods: 28 children with familial risk of dyslexia and 26 control children participated in EEG recordings and assessment of language abilities at two years of age. MMR amplitudes were recorded for discrimination of vowel duration, pitch, and vowel identity, and groups were compared using MANOVA. Linear regression was applied to examine if MMR responses explained the variation in speech comprehension, production, and vocabulary. Results and Conclusions: Statistically significant MMRs were observed for all features of speech and no group differences were found in MMR amplitudes. This indicates that both groups could discriminate sounds equally well at the automatic level of information processing. MMRs to vowel duration and identity were associated with language comprehension and production, unlike MMR to pitch change. Thus, the perception of phonemic changes seems especially relevant to language development. However, the relationship between MMRs and linguistic abilities differed between the two groups: MMR to vowel duration explained comprehension and production in the control group, whereas MMR to vowel identity explained production in the risk group. A longer follow-up time is needed to examine if MMRs also predict phonological processing and literacy skills in school age.