Wernicke’s aphasia (WA), an acquired impairment of language comprehension and word repetition, results from a cerebrovascular accident to the left temporoparietal junction. The disorder has been important to the development of neurobiological models of language, however neuropsychological investigations into the nature of the comprehension impairment have been limited. This thesis presents a series of four experiments, investigating the comprehension impairment in WA. Chapter 3, a behavioural neuropsychological study, investigates existing hypotheses of the comprehension impairment in WA: a phonological breakdown, a semantic breakdown, a dual phonological-semantic breakdown. A case series comparison methodology is utilised. Participants with WA are compared to participants from two other clinical, comprehension impaired groups: semantic dementia and semantic aphasia. Semantic dementia and semantic aphasia provide neuropsychological models of semantic breakdown, affecting semantic representations and semantic control respectively. Individuals with WA showed disrupted non-verbal semantic analysis of a similar magnitude to that in semantic dementia and semantic aphasia and of a qualitatively similar nature to that in semantic aphasia. A significantly greater impairment on assessments which required acoustic-phonological analysis was found for individuals with WA compared to semantic aphasia. Overall a dual breakdown in acoustic-phonological and semantic control best accounted for the comprehension impairment in WA. In Chapter 4, direct evidence was sought for a link between acoustic-phonological non-word analysis and auditory comprehension in WA. A novel test of non-word discrimination was created which was perceptually graded so as to provide a sensitive measure in severely impaired participants. Individuals with WA were significantly impaired at non-word discrimination compared to age and hearing matched control participants who performed at ceiling. The degree of non-word discrimination/acoustic-phonological analysis impairment correlated with auditory comprehension in WA. Chapter 5 investigated the extent to which the established acoustic-phonological impairment in WA was grounded in a more fundamental deficit in non-verbal auditory analysis. The capacity to detect structural changes in non-verbal auditory stimuli was measured. Participants with WA had an impaired capacity to detect differences in all but the most structurally simple auditory stimuli, compared to control participants. The degree of this impairment correlated with the degree of auditory comprehension impairment in the WA group. Chapter 6 revisits the semantic impairment observed in WA. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to investigate the residual neural networks recruited by individuals with WA, when performing a semantic animate-inanimate judgment task. Large portions of the inferior and anterior temporal lobes bilaterally were activated, regions remote from the lesion in WA. Age matched control participants recruited similar regions; however the activation in WA participants was significantly stronger. This indicated greater reliance on the residual semantic network in WA in response to damage to posterior temporoparietal semantic regions. The results from this series of studies indicated that the primary deficit in WA is one of impaired acoustic analysis and co-morbid damage to a phonological system. Additional disruption occurs to the semantic control network, which regulates the task directed use of semantic representations. A combination of all three factors accounts for the comprehension impairment in WA and it is the relative contributions of each factor that accounts for behavioural variation between individuals.

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Agradecemos a compreensão. on 2016-07-19T18:39:58Z (GMT) / Submitted by LAURA MELAMED BARBOSA null (lauramelamed@ig.com.br) on 2016-07-19T22:07:30Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Laura_Melamed_Barbosa.pdf: 2569969 bytes, checksum: ff12536ad5cdb8d808b45545c1f6f6e8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Ana Paula Grisoto (grisotoana@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2016-07-20T12:53:56Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 barbosa_lm_me_ia.pdf: 2569969 bytes, checksum: ff12536ad5cdb8d808b45545c1f6f6e8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-20T12:53:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 barbosa_lm_me_ia.pdf: 2569969 bytes, checksum: ff12536ad5cdb8d808b45545c1f6f6e8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-05-10 / Por intermédio desta pesquisa pretende-se apresentar e fazer refletir, a partir dos resultados obtidos por meio de um processo pedagógico desenvolvido com estudantes do curso de Licenciatura em Arte – Teatro do Instituto de Artes da UNESP. O objetivo da reflexão e pesquisa desenvolvidas nessa pesquisa consiste em estudar a relação entre a estimulação das habilidades do processamento auditivo e a percepção auditiva da própria fala. Sendo assim, buscou-se verificar, ao estimularmos as habilidades do processamento auditivo e de processos correlatos, se modificamos a percepção auditiva a respeito dos recursos expressivos utilizados durante a gravação de uma leitura dramática, realizada por cinco estudantes de Teatro. Para complementar o conjunto de dados a serem analisados, incluímos as respostas de um questionário, a respeito do comportamento auditivo e de seus correlatos, aplicado no início e reaplicado seis meses após o término da pesquisa. Também contamos com informações relacionadas à elaboração da proposta expressiva para a leitura dramática. Os resultados indicaram uma pluralidade de respostas entre as (os) estudantes, o que nos permitiu refletir a respeito do processo pedagógico de cada uma (um), a partir de diversas relações comparativas. Apesar das (os) estudantes terem mobilizado para a leitura dramática diversos recursos expressivos relacionados à emoção e à intenção, poucas (os) os reconheceram auditivamente na gravação feita no início do processo. A partir de resultados, foi possível relacionar o proposto para a leitura dramática com o que foi percebido nas duas análises perceptivo-auditivas feitas pelas (os) estudantes, uma no início e outra no final da pesquisa. De modo que nos permitiu inferir conclusões propositivas, dentre as quais, destacamos o reconhecimento do quanto integrar a ação de produzir sonoridades orais, com a ação de “sentir algo”, pode ser relevante para atrizes e atores aumentarem a consistência em perceber auditivamente os recursos expressivos relacionados à emoção e à intenção que, geralmente, propõem, mas sem ouvirem-se, comumentemente. Ao término da pesquisa reconhecemos que de nada valeria realizá-la se não pudéssemos nos modificar a cada dia. / The present research aims to present and reflect from the results obtained through a pedagogical process developed with students of Arts and Drama degree of the Arts Institute of UNESP. The goal of the study consists of the relation between the hearing process abilities stimulation and the auditory perception of the own speech. This way, it will be verified if as long as the hearing process abilities and related processes are stimulated the auditory perception is modified concerning the significant resources used during a dramatic reading recording made by five drama students. In order to complement the data set to be analyzed, survey answers about the hearing behavior and related ones were included and applied at the beginning of the research and other ones six months after the end of the research as well as information related to significant proposal elaboration to a dramatic reading. The students were analyzed individually and the results indicated the plurality of answers among them which allowed us to reflect on the pedagogical process of each one from several comparative relations. Although the students have proposed to the dramatic reading many significant resources related to their emotion and to their intention, only few recognized, aurally, during the recording made at the beginning of this research. Based on results like this one, it was possible to relate what was proposed to the dramatic reading to what was understood in both auditory perceptive analysis made at the beginning and at the end of the research by the students. So, it allowed us to infer proposal conclusions which we would like to emphasize the recognition of how much we integrate the action of making oral sounds to the action of feeling something could be relevant to actresses and actors in order to make them more aware of increasing the consistence of auditory perception of significant resources related to the emotion and intention which they are only used to propose and not to hear. At the end of the research, we recognized it would not be worth making it if we could not modify ourselves each day.

The hearing evaluation that has been doing on occupational environment easily detects the noise induced hearing loss (NIHL), however, alterations on the central auditory pathway can not be observed. Studies have showed a relation between the noise exposure time and the increase of the incidence of hearing loss, but do not demonstrate how the auditory processing can be affected by the exposure time of that risk. Therefore, this study had as objective to evaluate the influence of working time on the central auditory function of military personnel exposed to occupational noise. It were evaluated 41 militaries, with at least 10 years of noise exposure, divided into group A (n = 16), without hearing loss and group B (n = 25), with hearing loss. To configure a longitudinal study, were invited the same individuals studied by Marins (2004) and were submitted to the same evaluations three years after the referred study: basic hearing evaluation and auditory processing tests (Low- Pass Filtered Speech, SSW and Pitch Pattern Sequence - PPS tests). A higher occurrence of auditory processing alterations were observed, specially on Low-Pass Filtered Speech test (43,75% and 68% on groups A and B, respectively) and PPS (68,75% and 48% on groups A and B, respectively). Longitudinally, statistical analysis revealed a significant decrease of Speech ecognition Index, just in the group B, in both ears; on the Low-Pass Filtered Speech test of group B (right and left ears) and just in the left ear of group A. Then, it was concluded that the occupational noise exposure interferes on the auditory processing of military personnel, and that increase with the working time / A avaliação auditiva prevista para ambientes ocupacionais facilmente detecta a perda auditiva induzida por ruído (PAIR), porém, alterações da via auditiva central não podem ser observadas. Alguns estudos têm mostrado uma relação entre o tempo de exposição a ruído e o aumento da incidência da perda auditiva, mas não demonstra o quanto o processamento auditivo pode ser afetado pelo tempo de exposição a tal risco. Assim, este trabalho teve como objetivo avaliar a influência do tempo de serviço na função auditiva central de militares expostos a ruído ocupacional. Foram avaliados 41 militares, com exposição a ruído a mais de 10 anos, subdivididos em grupo A (n =16), sem perda auditiva e grupo B (n = 25), com perda auditiva. Para configurar um estudo longitudinal, foram convidados os mesmos indivíduos estudados por Marins (2004) e todos foram submetidos às mesmas avaliações três anos depois do referido estudo: avaliação audiológica básica e testes de processamento auditivo (testes de Fala Filtrada, SSW e de Padrão de Freqüência - PPS). Foram observadas maiores ocorrências de alteração de processamento auditivo, especialmente no teste de Fala Filtrada (43,75% e 68% nos grupos A e B, respectivamente) e PPS (68,75% e 48% nos grupos A e B, respectivamente). Longitudinalmente, observou-se piora estatisticamente significante no Índice Percentual de Reconhecimento de Fala (IPRF) apenas no grupo B, em ambas as orelhas; no teste de Fala Filtrada no grupo B (orelha direita e esquerda) e apenas da orelha esquerda do grupo A. Com isto, conclui-se que a exposição a ruído ocupacional interfere no processamento auditivo de militares, sendo agravado pelo aumento do tempo de serviço

Abstract The main objective of the present follow-up study was to investigate auditory processing by using auditory event related potentials (ERPs), and language development to determine whether a correlation exists between auditory ERPs and language development. Auditory processing was investigated in very low birth weight (VLBW) preterm children and matched controls at mean ages of 4 and 6 years to determine whether there are differences in ERPs between VLBW preterm children and controls. Language development was measured at the mean ages of 2, 4 and 6 years to investigate the developmental course of language learning and to determine whether a relationship exists between ERPs, especially mismatch negativity (MMN), and language development. Auditory ERPs were also measured in children with AS (mean age 9;1 years) and matched controls to assess whether differences can be found between these two groups of children. Language development in children with AS was not investigated for this study. VLBW preterm children exhibited difficulties in the auditory processing at the level of obligatory ERPs, MMN, late MMN (lMMN) and behavioural tests. Both language comprehension and production were deficient in the preterm group compared to their controls. Lexical development was the most prominent phenomenon differentiating preterm children from their controls. MMN and lMMN amplitudes were attenuated most in children with naming difficulty at the ages of 4 and 6 years. Weak or totally missing MMN at the age of 4 years was mainly found in children with naming difficulties. Children with AS also displayed abnormalities in auditory processing, as indexed by delayed MMN latency. MMN was most delayed in the right hemisphere and specifically for tones. In conclusion: VLBW preterm children and children with AS exhibited difficulties in auditory processing. MMN correlated well with language development in preterm children. Therefore, auditory ERPs, especially MMN, should be used in combination with language measures to identify the children at a risk for deficient auditory processing and language delays.

Responses of six severely language delayed (SLD) children were obtained on three measures of central auditory processing and one measure of language proficiency. The results of these measures were compared to the results obtained from six normal-hearing children, matched in age and Performance IQ on the WISC-R. The 12 children were tested with the Pitch Pattern Sequence Test (PPST), the Dichotic Digit Tests (DDT), and the Pediatric Speech Intelligibility Test (PSI). Differences in the central auditory abilities as well as the history of each child were presented in .a case study format. The results of the history information demonstrated no unusual problems among these 12 subjects. Ten out of 12 subjects demonstrated abnormal results on at least one measure of the central auditory battery.

L’objectif de cette thèse est de déterminer si le déficit auditif des enfants dysphasiques est spécifique au domaine verbal et d’étudier les liens qu’entretiennent les habiletés verbales et musicales chez ces enfants. Nous avons testé 18 dysphasiques et des enfants au développement du langage typique (DLT) âgés de 7 à 12 ans. Dans la première étude, nous avons étudié leurs capacités de détection des syllabes dans des phrases chantées et parlées. Nos résultats ont confirmé les déficits de détection des syllabes chez les dysphasiques. Nous n’avons toutefois pas observé d’effet facilitateur du chant sur la détection des syllabes. Dans une seconde étude, nous avons exploré leur perception musicale à l’aide de la MBEMA (Peretz et al., 2013). Une part importante de ces enfants a montré des troubles de perception mélodique et rythmique. Une corrélation positive a été retrouvée entre les scores aux tests de perception rythmique et de conscience phonologique, étayant les liens entre le traitement temporel et la perception verbale chez les dysphasiques. Dans la troisième étude, nous avons exploré leurs capacités de chant avec une épreuve de reproduction de notes et de mélodies. Les dysphasiques montraient des troubles importants dans ces deux conditions. Des troubles de production et de perception musicale ont été mis en évidence chez la plupart des dysphasiques et les capacités de conscience phonologique semblaient liées au traitement temporel en musique. Ces résultats en faveur d’un déficit auditif plus global chez la plupart des dysphasiques suggèrent l’importance d’évaluer les capacités auditives non verbales dans la prise en charge diagnostique et thérapeutique de ces enfants. / The aim of this thesis is to determine whether the auditory deficit of children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) is specific to verbal stimuli, and to examine the relation between language and musical abilities in these children. We tested 18 children with SLI and groups of children with Typical Language Development (TLD) aged from 7 to 12 years. In the first study, we examined syllable detection in sung and spoken sentences. Results confirmed the detection syllable deficit in children with SLI. However, we did not observe a facilitation effect of sung over spoken stimuli. In the second study, we explored musical perception abilities in the same children with the MBEMA (Peretz et al. 2013). Our results showed that a large proportion of the children with SLI present deficits in melodic and rhythmic perception. A positive correlation was found between scores in Rhythm and phonological awareness tasks, documenting a link between language and temporal processing in children with SLI. In the third study, we assessed singing abilities in children with SLI: we created a singing reproduction task and tested the pitch matching condition and the melodic reproduction condition. The SLI showed deficits for both conditions. These results suggested deficits in music perception and production in children with SLI for most of them and that development of phonological awareness abilities seems related to the auditory temporal processing in music. The findings seem to support the existence a more general auditory dysfunction in a majority of children with SLI emphasizing the relevance of systematically assessing nonverbal abilities for the diagnostic and rehabilitation of SLI.

INTRODUÇÃO: A misofonia é caracterizada pela aversão a sons bem seletivos, que provocam uma forte reação emocional. Foi proposto que a misofonia, assim como o zumbido, esteja associada à hiperconectividade entre os sistemas auditivo e límbico. Indivíduos com zumbido de incômodo significativo podem apresentar comprometimento da atenção seletiva, o que ainda não foi demonstrado no caso da misofonia. OBJETIVO: caracterizar uma amostra de indivíduos com misofonia e compará-la com dois grupos controle, um com zumbido (sem misofonia) e outro assintomático (sem zumbido e sem misofonia). METODOLOGIA: Foram avaliados 40 sujeitos normo-ouvintes, sendo 10 com misofonia (grupo misofonia - GM), 10 com zumbido (sem misofonia) (grupo controle zumbido - GCZ) e 20 sem zumbido e sem misofonia (grupo controle assintomático - GCA). Foi realizada anamnese geral em todos os grupos e anamnese específica apenas para o GM. Nos três grupos, foi aplicado o Teste de Identificação de Sentenças Dicóticas em três situações. Na primeira, foi realizado o exame padrão. Em seguida, foi aplicado incluindo mensagem competitiva, uma com som de mastigação (exame mastigação), e outra com white noise (exame white noise). RESULTADOS: A amostra do GM apontou que os primeiros sintomas da misofonia foram percebidos ainda na infância ou adolescência (média 11,5 anos). O grau de incômodo variou de 6 a 10 na escala visual analógica e, dentre os 10 participantes do GM, nove (90%) responderam que a misofonia atrapalha, sempre ou às vezes, a vida social e profissional. No teste de Identificação de Sentenças Dicóticas, foi observado que no exame mastigação, as médias da porcentagem de acertos diferem entre os grupos GM e GCA (valor-p = 0,027) e entre os grupos GM e GCZ (valor-p = 0,002), sendo menor em ambos os casos no GM. Para os exames padrão e white noise, não há diferença entre as médias da porcentagem de acertos nos três grupos (valores-p >= 0,452). CONCLUSÃO: os participantes do GM apresentaram menor porcentagem de acertos no Teste de Identificação de Sentenças Dicóticas na situação de apresentação de um ruído distraidor (exame mastigação) em relação ao mesmo teste aplicado em situação padrão ou white noise, sugerindo que indivíduos com misofonia podem apresentar alteração da atenção seletiva quando expostos a sons que desencadeiam esta condição / INTRODUCTION: Misophonia is characterized by the aversion to very selective sounds, which evoke a strong emotional reaction. It has been proposed that misophonia, as well as tinnitus, is associated with hyperconnectivity between the auditory and limbic systems. Individuals with bothersome tinnitus may have selective attention impairment, but it has not been demonstrated in case of misophonia yet. OBJECTIVE: to characterize a sample of misophonic subjects and compare it to two control groups, one with tinnitus individuals (without misophonia) and the other one with asymptomatic individuals (without misophonia and without tinnitus), regarding self-perception of the condition and selective attention. METHODOLOGY: we had evaluated 40 normal hearing participants: 10 with misophonia (GM), 10 with tinnitus (without misophonia) (GCZ) and 20 without tinnitus and without misophonia (GCA). General questionnare was applied in all of three groups and specific misophonia questionnaire was applied only in GM. In order to evaluate the selective attention, it was applied the Dichotic Sentence Identification (DSI) Test in three situations: In the first one, it was applied the original test. Then, the test was applied in two other situations including two competitive sounds, one with chewing sound (chewing test), and the other one with white noise sound (white noise test). RESULTS: The GM sample indicated that the onset of misophonia occurred in childhood or adolescence (mean 11.5 years). According to the visual analog scale, the discomfort with misophonia ranged from 5 to 10, and nine (90%) participants answered that misophonia always or sometimes limits their social and professional interactions. In the chewing test, it was observed that the average of correct responses differed between GM and GCA groups (pvalue = 0.027) and between GM and GCZ groups (p-value = 0.002), in both cases it was lower in GM. In the original and white noise tests, no difference was observed between the averages of correct responses in the three groups (p-values >= 0.452). CONCLUSION: The GM participants had a lower percentage of correct responses in the chewing test, suggesting that individuals with misophonia may have selective attention impairment when they are exposed to sounds that trigger the condition

The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility that music and movement instruction could cause improvement in language arts skills, due to evidence that music and language share processing mechanisms related to auditory perception as described by Patel (2007, 2011a, 2011b, 2014) in the shared syntactic integration resource hypothesis (SSIRH) and OPERA hypothesis. Sixty-two Kindergarten students from a suburban school, near a city in the Midwest, were selected via random assignment to be a part of an experimental or control group. Each group participated in pre- and posttests measuring entrainment and pre-reading skills. ANCOVA results of pre and posttest data revealed no significant difference between the groups. The music and movement instruction did not improve entrainment so results were inconclusive in regard to the impact of entrainment on phonological processing and rapid naming. Future studies might consider a pretest/posttest design with a group that focuses on entrainment without specific music language (Patel, 2008) and a group that conducted music class with the usual songs and descriptive language, to provide evidence regarding whether or not language needs to be combined with music to cause a cognitive transfer of skills. A further comparison of a group that learned to play singing games with a group that learned instrumental music might provide further evidence regarding the role that the combination of music and language might have on reading. Another line of inquiry might involve increasing the length of the intervention period to determine if a year is needed to cause cognitive transfer and ensure that the control group does not receive any music instruction. An additional consideration may be that improvement in entrainment provides a foundation for language processing that does not fully develop or present itself until children reach more challenging levels of reading fluency. Studies that measure student improvement over time would be one way to find evidence that music provides a neurological basis for reading, and language development. Further study possibilities are described in the conclusions of the dissertation. / 2022-11-15T00:00:00Z

Masking Level Difference (MLD) tests are an established component of auditory processing test batteries; however, normative data for these tests vary according to procedure. In this study, forty normal, native-English speaking adults between the ages of 18 and 26 were tested for MLD via a newly developed computer software program using both an adaptive procedure (MLDA) and a Bekesy procedure (MLDB). The results from the two procedures were analyzed for sex differences and compared with each other. For both the MLDA and MLDB, the results showed statistically significant sex differences in the masked thresholds used to obtain the MLD (NoSo and NoSπ), but no significant difference in the calculated MLD value (NoSo - NoSπ). These results suggest that since the MLD was similar for both sexes, the normative data need not be reported separately by sex. The results also showed statistically significant differences between procedures, with the MLDA procedure producing higher MLDs than the MLDB procedure. The MLDA procedure lent itself to a d´ analysis, which could not be determined using MLDB due to the nature of a Bekesy assessment. For MLDA, d´ = 1.4, test sensitivity = 96.4%, and test specificity = 60.3%. The results of this study indicate that MLDA is a better testing procedure due to MLDA's higher MLD average and the statistical data available (d´, and measures of sensitivity and specificity) when using the MLDA procedure.

his study compared auditory behavioral and physiological measures among three subject groups: 1) Normal control subjects, 2) subjects who were on a prescribed SSRI for depression, and 3) subjects who were prescribed an SSRI for depression, but were not medicated at the time of testing. Test measures included: Standard audiological tests (audiometry and tympanometry), electrophysiological procedures for analysis of auditory- evoked brainstem and late responses, and standardized behavioral speech tests (SCAN-A, SSI, and the low predictability sentence list of the R-SPIN). Analysis of results indicated a statistically significant increase of group mean amplitude of the ABR peak V, from 15dBnSL to 55dBnSL, in the non-medicated group compared to controls. Also, the non-medicated group scored significantly less favorably than controls on the most challenging listening condition (-20 MCR) of the SSI, in the left ear. Although other test measures indicated consistent differences between these two groups, they were not, however, significant.