Introdução: Existem muitas controvérsias sobre a dislexia. Uma delas é justamente saber se a dificuldade está no processamento auditivo de forma geral ou especificamente para a percepção de diferenças temporais de sons de fala e se a dificuldade é específica para mudanças rápidas temporais ou abrangem uma gama mais ampla de processamento auditivo. Objetivos: Os objetivos desse estudo foram comparar o desempenho de crianças com dislexia (Grupo Estudo) e com desenvolvimento típico (Grupo Controle) em testes comportamentais de Processamento Auditivo (Central) e comparar o desempenho do Grupo Estudo e do Grupo Controle em teste de Potenciais Evocados Auditivos de Longa Latência. Métodos: Participaram desse estudo 22 indivíduos disléxicos e 16 sem queixas ou alterações de leitura e escrita. Todos os indivíduos foram submetidos à avaliação de Processamento Auditivo (Central) comportamental e eletrofisiológica. Resultados: Para os testes comportamentais, houve diferença estatisticamente significante para o Teste Padrão de Frequência, e verificamos diferença estatisticamente significante somente para a Orelha Esquerda entre os resultados dos grupos Estudo e Controle para o Teste Dicótico de Dígitos, sendo que o Grupo Estudo apresentou um pior desempenho. Para os Potenciais Evocados Auditivos de Longa Latência encontramos diferença para os valores de Latência de N2 entre os grupos Estudo e Controle, sendo que o Grupo Estudo apresentou maiores valores de latência. Esse achado foi estatisticamente significante somente para Orelha Direita. Conclusões: Podemos sugerir que os disléxicos apresentam alteração de processamento auditivo temporal e não podemos afirmar que não há comprometimento de outras habilidades / Introduction: There are several controversies about dyslexia. One of them is knowing whether the difficulty is in the general auditory processing or specifically in the perception of temporal differences of speech sounds, and whether the difficulty is specifically for rapid temporal changes or involves a broader range of auditory processing. Aims: The aims of this study were to compare the performance of children with dyslexia (Study Group) and of children with typical development (Control Group) in behavioral tests of (Central) Auditory Processing, and to compare the performance of Study Group and Control Group in Long Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials. Methods: 22 individuals with dyslexia and 16 individuals with no reading and writing complaints or disorders took part in the study. All individuals underwent behavioral and electrophysiological assessment of (Central) Auditory Processing. Results: Concerning the behavioral tests results in both groups, there was a significant statistical difference for the Frequency Pattern Test and for the Left ear in the Dichotic Digit test, with a worse performance observed in the Study Group. Considering the Long Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials, there was a difference for the N2 latency values between the Study Group and the Control Group, with greater latency values in the Study Group. This finding was statistically significant only for the Right ear. Conclusions: We may suggest that individuals with dyslexia present temporal auditory processing disorder, however we cannot affirm absence of disorders in other skills

Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) is known to produce speech disruptions in fluent speakers. The present study examined the relationship between individuals' susceptibility to DAF and their auditory processing skills. Forty participants (20 males and 20 females) read and produced monologue at no delay and 3 different delay levels of 100, 200, and 400 ms. Auditory processing skills were evaluated using dichotic digits test (DDT) and staggered spondaic word (SSW) test. Males produced significantly more Stuttering-Like Disfluencies (SLDs) under DAF than females. Significantly more SLDs were observed during conversation compared to reading. Overall, there was significant correlation between the frequency of SLDs and auditory performance on SSW test. Females scored significantly better on both SSW test and DDT compared to males. Scores on attention regulation questionnaire were not significantly different between genders. Fewer SLDs observed in females under DAF could be attributed to their superior control of auditory processing resources compared to males.

The studies investigated the impact of predictive visual information about the pitch and location of a forthcoming sound on the sound processing. In Symbol-to-Sound matching paradigms, symbols induced predictions of particular sounds. The brain’s error signals (IR and N2b components of the event-related potential) were measured in response to occasional violations of the prediction, i.e. when a sound was incongruent to the corresponding symbol. IR and N2b index the detection of prediction violations at different levels, IR at a sensory and N2b at a cognitive level. Participants evaluated the congruency between prediction and actual sound by button press. When the prediction referred to only the pitch or only the location feature (Exp. 1), the violation of each feature elicited IR and N2b. The IRs to pitch and location violations revealed differences in the in time course and topography, suggesting that they were generated in feature-specific sensory areas. When the prediction referred to both features concurrently (Exp. 2), that is, the symbol predicted the sound´s pitch and location, either one or both predictions were violated. Unexpectedly, no significant effects in the IR range were obtained. However, N2b was elicited in response to all violations. N2b in response to concurrent violations of pitch and location had a shorter latency. We conclude that associative predictions can be established by arbitrary rule-based symbols and for different sound features, and that concurrent violations are processed in parallel. In complex situations as in Exp. 2, capacity limitations appear to affect processing in a hierarchical manner. While predictions were presumably not reliably established at sensory levels (absence of IR), they were established at more cognitive levels, where sounds are represented categorially (presence of N2b).

This dissertation is comprised of four studies investigating the hypothesis that adults and children who stutter differ from their same-age fluent peers in the neuroanatomy and neurophysiology underlying auditory speech processing. It has been consistently reported that adults who stutter demonstrate unique functional neural activation patterns during speech production, including reduced auditory activation, relative to nonstutterers. The extent to which these functional differences are accompanied by abnormal morphology of the brain in stutterers is unclear. The first study in this dissertation examined the neuroanatomical differences in speech-related cortex between adults who do and do not stutter using magnetic resonance imaging and voxel-based morphometry analyses. Adults who stutter were found to have localized grey matter volume increases in auditory and motor speech related cortex. The second study extended this line of research to children who stutter, who were found to have localized grey matter volume decreases in motor speech related cortex. Together, these studies suggest an abnormal trajectory of regional grey matter development in motor speech cortex of people who stutter. The last two studies investigated the mechanism underlying the repeated findings of reduced auditory activation during speech in people who stutter in more detail. Magnetoencephalography was used to investigate the hypothesis that people who stutter have increased speech induced suppression of early evoked auditory responses. Adults and children who stutter demonstrated typical levels of speech induced suppression relative to fluent peers. However, adults and children who stutter showed differences from peers in the timing of cortical auditory responses. Taken together, the studies demonstrate structural and functional abnormalities in brain regions related to auditory processing and point to the possibility that people who stutter have difficulty forming the neural representations of speech sounds necessary for fluent speech production.

No description available.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Introduction: Among the different hearing functions, is to allow the individual to understand the speech sounds, from the capture and processing of what is heard. For this reason, understanding how sound is captured and encoded by the central auditory pathway becomes paramount, because it is not sufficient to comprehend exclusively the competencies of the peripheral pathways. From that comes the importance of the investigation via auditory evoked potentials and behavioral examinations of auditory processing. Objective: To investigate the auditory pathways functionality in brainstem level through the Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potentials with speech stimuli in both individuals presenting or not complaints of speech comprehension and behavioral tests of auditory processing. Methods: The present study is observational, descriptive, transversal and prospective. There were selected 60 subjects aged between 18 and 35 years, presenting normal hearing, parted by the presence (study group) and absence (control group) of the complaint of speech comprehension. The fulfilled evaluations were Masking-level Difference MLD, Random Gap Detection Test RGDT and Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potential (BAEP) using speech and click stimuli. Results: Both behavioral tests demonstrated no significant differences between groups, whereas both tests presented more normal responses than altered ones in both groups. The BAEP-click and speech produced more altered results in the study group and did not presented correlation between each other and the behavioral tests between the groups. Conclusion: It was possible to investigate the functionality of the auditory pathway in brainstem level through the BAEP with speech stimuli in subjects presenting or not speech comprehension complaints and the difference between the groups was not statistically significant, for both BAEP and behavioral tests of auditory processing. / Introdução: Dentre as variadas funções da audição, está a de permitir ao individuo a compreensão dos sons da fala, a partir da captação e processamento do que é ouvido. Por isso entender como o som está sendo capturado e codificado pela via auditiva central torna-se imprescindível, pois não é suficiente saber unicamente das competências das vias periféricas. Daí a importância da investigação via potenciais evocados auditivos e exames comportamentais de processamento auditivo. Objetivo: Investigar a funcionalidade das vias auditivas em nível de tronco encefálico por meio do Potencial Evocado de Tronco Encefálico com estímulo de fala em indivíduos com e sem queixa de compreensão de fala e testes comportamentais de processamento auditivo. Métodos: Este estudo teve caráter observacional, descritivo, transversal e prospectivo. Foram selecionados 60 sujeitos com idade 18 a 35 anos, com audição normal, separados quanto a presença (grupo estudo) e ausência (grupo controle) da queixa de compreensão de fala. As avaliações realizadas foram os testes: Masking-level Difference- MLD e Random detectation Test- RGDT e Potencial Evocado de Tronco Encefálico com estímulo de fala e clique. Resultados: ambos os testes comportamentais não apresentaram diferenças significativas entre os grupos, sendo que os dois testes tiveram mais respostas normais do que alteradas para ambos os grupos, e não tiveram correlação com a queixa e com os testes eletrofisiológicos. O PEATE-clique e fala apresentaram mais resultados alterados para o grupo estudo e não apresentaram correlação entre si entre com os testes comportamentais entre os grupos. Conclusão: Foi possível investigar a funcionalidade da via auditiva em nível de tronco encefálico por meio do PEATE com estímulo de fala em sujeitos com e sem queixa de compreensão de fala e a diferença entre os grupos não foi estatisticamente significante, tanto para o PEATE fala quanto para os testes comportamentais de processamento auditivo.

The purpose of this dissertation was to understand the possible relationships among exposure to high sound pressure levels, auditory processing, and performance in the routes of reading and writing, having in mind that children who are acquiring such abilities, into an improper acoustic environment, have tendency to have writing processing difficulties. In this context, this investigation was conducted through the integration among the knowledge of Acoustics, Audiology, and Neuropsychology in the acquisition of writing language. The accomplished procedures were acoustic measures, auditory evaluation, which include the inspection of the external auditory canal, vocal and pure-tone audiometry, imitanciometry, and for the auditory processing, the Staggered Spondaic Words (SSW) test was performed. The writing evaluation included reading and writing isolated words to analyze the use of the lexical and phonological routes. The results of the acoustic measurements through the dosimeter in four schools in Santa Maria, RS, Brazil divided the sample of 87 children of 3 and 4 years old of primary school, aged eight to ten years, into two groups exposed (17 children) and not exposed (70 children) to levels higher than 80dB(A). The sample with normal auditory threshold was also separated in groups with 38 children without changes in acoustic immittance measurements and 49 with changes. The results showed that the children who were exposed to high sound pressure levels are damaged to use the lexical and phonological routes in reading and writing, even if such alterations were not evidenced with significant differences in the auditory processing test, between the exposed and not exposed groups. It is possible to infer, however, that the noise affects the reading and writing processing, and preventive actions are necessary to avoid trouble to the students related to their academic and social abilities. / Esta dissertação teve como proposta de estudo compreender as possíveis relações entre exposição a níveis de pressão sonora elevados, processamento auditivo e desempenho nas rotas de leitura e escrita, visto que crianças que estão adquirindo tais habilidades, em meio a um ambiente acústico inadequado, são propensas a dificuldades no processamento da linguagem escrita. Nesse contexto, a investigação foi conduzida pela integração dos conhecimentos da Acústica, Audiologia e Neuropsicologia em aquisição de linguagem escrita. Os procedimentos realizados incluíram medições acústicas, avaliação auditiva que incluiu a inspeção do meato acústico externo, audiometria tonal e vocal, imitanciometria, e para o processamento auditivo realizou-se o teste dicótico de dissílabos alternados (SSW). A avaliação da linguagem escrita incluiu a leitura e escrita de palavras isoladas para análise do uso das rotas fonológica e lexical. Os resultados das mensurações acústicas realizadas por meio de dosímetro em quatro escolas de Santa Maria RS, dividiu a amostra de 87 crianças do 3º e 4º anos do ensino fundamental, na faixa etária de oito a dez anos, em dois grupos expostos (17 crianças) e não expostos (70 crianças) a níveis maiores que 80dB(A). A amostra com limiares auditivos normais foi distribuída em dois grupos: um de 38 crianças sem alterações e outro de 49 crianças com alterações imitanciométricas. Os resultados demonstraram que crianças expostas a níveis de pressão sonora elevados são prejudicadas no uso das rotas fonológica e lexical na leitura e escrita, ainda que tais alterações não tenham sido evidenciadas em diferenças significativas no teste de processamento auditivo entre o grupo não exposto e exposto. Pode se inferir, portanto, que o ruído prejudica o processamento da leitura e escrita, e tornam-se necessárias ações preventivas com a finalidade de evitar prejuízos aos escolares em suas habilidades acadêmicas e sociais.

Introdução: Existem muitas controvérsias sobre a dislexia. Uma delas é justamente saber se a dificuldade está no processamento auditivo de forma geral ou especificamente para a percepção de diferenças temporais de sons de fala e se a dificuldade é específica para mudanças rápidas temporais ou abrangem uma gama mais ampla de processamento auditivo. Objetivos: Os objetivos desse estudo foram comparar o desempenho de crianças com dislexia (Grupo Estudo) e com desenvolvimento típico (Grupo Controle) em testes comportamentais de Processamento Auditivo (Central) e comparar o desempenho do Grupo Estudo e do Grupo Controle em teste de Potenciais Evocados Auditivos de Longa Latência. Métodos: Participaram desse estudo 22 indivíduos disléxicos e 16 sem queixas ou alterações de leitura e escrita. Todos os indivíduos foram submetidos à avaliação de Processamento Auditivo (Central) comportamental e eletrofisiológica. Resultados: Para os testes comportamentais, houve diferença estatisticamente significante para o Teste Padrão de Frequência, e verificamos diferença estatisticamente significante somente para a Orelha Esquerda entre os resultados dos grupos Estudo e Controle para o Teste Dicótico de Dígitos, sendo que o Grupo Estudo apresentou um pior desempenho. Para os Potenciais Evocados Auditivos de Longa Latência encontramos diferença para os valores de Latência de N2 entre os grupos Estudo e Controle, sendo que o Grupo Estudo apresentou maiores valores de latência. Esse achado foi estatisticamente significante somente para Orelha Direita. Conclusões: Podemos sugerir que os disléxicos apresentam alteração de processamento auditivo temporal e não podemos afirmar que não há comprometimento de outras habilidades / Introduction: There are several controversies about dyslexia. One of them is knowing whether the difficulty is in the general auditory processing or specifically in the perception of temporal differences of speech sounds, and whether the difficulty is specifically for rapid temporal changes or involves a broader range of auditory processing. Aims: The aims of this study were to compare the performance of children with dyslexia (Study Group) and of children with typical development (Control Group) in behavioral tests of (Central) Auditory Processing, and to compare the performance of Study Group and Control Group in Long Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials. Methods: 22 individuals with dyslexia and 16 individuals with no reading and writing complaints or disorders took part in the study. All individuals underwent behavioral and electrophysiological assessment of (Central) Auditory Processing. Results: Concerning the behavioral tests results in both groups, there was a significant statistical difference for the Frequency Pattern Test and for the Left ear in the Dichotic Digit test, with a worse performance observed in the Study Group. Considering the Long Latency Auditory Evoked Potentials, there was a difference for the N2 latency values between the Study Group and the Control Group, with greater latency values in the Study Group. This finding was statistically significant only for the Right ear. Conclusions: We may suggest that individuals with dyslexia present temporal auditory processing disorder, however we cannot affirm absence of disorders in other skills

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:40:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrea Ladeira.pdf: 1035915 bytes, checksum: f76efbda2284ef8ff5e885e13e4e3d1c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-01-22 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / The Central Auditory Processing Disorders are the deficiency of one or more hearing processes and mechanisms or the deficiency of major dysfunctions. Considering that new therapeutic and/or diagnostic approaches should be investigated, recent studies have shown that non invasive cerebral stimulation tools are efficient in the modulation of brain activity in a safe and painless way. One of these techniques is the Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (TDCs). TDCs studies have shown that this technique is able to modulate cortical excitability on visual and motor areas and it is also capable to interfere in task performance involving cognitive functions on pre-frontal cortex such as operational memory and decision making. The aim of this study was the investigation of the possible effects of TDCs on primary auditory cortex, on temporal resolution tasks, using RGDT (Random Gap Detection Test). Eleven healthy volunteers received anodal, cathodal bilateral or sham ETCC in alternate days (i=2mA) and RGDT test was carried out before and during stimulation. It has been observed a significant effect for the frequencies of 4000Hz, Averages of Frequencies and Clicks, with an increase in the capacity of temporal discrimination in anodal stimulation and reduction in cathodal stimulation conditions. This is the first study showing that the ETCC of low intensity is capable of modulating the activity of primary auditory cortex resulting in positive or negative impact in the performance in task of temporal resolution according to the applied polarity (anodal or cathodal, respectively). Not only is the impact of these results in the demonstration of the TDCs as an important tool of investigation in cognitive neuroscience, but also in its use as an intervention tool. New studies will be necessary to investigate the impact of the TDCs in patients with alterations of the central auditory processing. / Os transtornos do Processamento Auditivo Central são caracterizados pela deficiência de um ou mais processos e mecanismos da audição ou são deficiências originadas de disfunções maiores. Considerando que novas abordagens terapêuticas e/ou diagnósticas devem ser investigadas, estudos recentes têm demonstrado que ferramentas de estimulação cerebral não invasivas são eficazes em modular a atividade cerebral de forma indolor e segura. Uma dessas técnicas é a Estimulação Transcraniana por Corrente Contínua (ETCC). Estudos realizados com ETCC têm demonstrado que esta técnica modula a excitabilidade cortical de áreas motoras e visuais e, além disso, é capaz de interferir no desempenho de tarefas que envolvam funções cognitivas como memória operacional e tomada de decisão quando aplicada em córtex pré-frontal. Este estudo teve como objetivo investigar os possíveis efeitos da ETCC em área cortical auditiva primária, em avaliação de tarefas de resolução temporal auditiva, utilizando o teste Random Gap Detection Test (RGDT). 11(onze) voluntários saudáveis receberam em dias alternados ETCC bilateral anódica, catódica ou placebo (i=2mA) e realizaram o teste RGDT antes e durante a estimulação. Observou-se um efeito significativo para as freqüências de 4000Hz, Médias de Freqüências e Clicks, com aumento na capacidade de discriminação temporal em condição de estimulação anódica e redução em estimulação catódica. Este é o primeiro estudo mostrando que a ETCC de baixa intensidade é capaz de modular a atividade do córtex auditivo primário resultando em impacto positivo ou negativo no desempenho em tarefa de resolução temporal em função da polaridade aplicada (ânodo ou cátodo, respectivamente). O impacto desses resultados reside na demonstração de que a ETCC é uma importante ferramenta de investigação em neurociência cognitiva, mas que também pode ter desdobramentos como ferramenta de intervenção. Novos estudos serão necessários para investigar o impacto da ETCC em pacientes com alterações de processamento auditivo central.

This study investigated the effects of an explicit individualized phonemic awareness intervention administered by a speech-language pathologist to 4 prekindergarten children with phonological speech sound disorders. Research has demonstrated that children with moderate-severe expressive phonological disorders are at-risk for poor literacy development because they often concurrently exhibit weaknesses in the development of phonological awareness skills (Rvachew, Ohberg, Grawburg, & Heyding, 2003). The research design chosen for this study was a single subject multiple probe design across subjects. After stable baseline measures, the participants received explicit instruction in each of the three phases separately and sequentially. Dependent measures included same-day tests for Phase I (Phoneme Identity), Phase II (Phoneme Blending), and Phase III (Phoneme Segmentation), and generalization and maintenance tests for all three phases. All 4 participants made substantial progress in all three phases. These skills were maintained during weekly and biweekly maintenance measures. Generalization measures indicated that the participants demonstrated some increases in their mean total number of correct responses in Phase II and Phase III baseline while the participants were in Phase I intervention, and more substantial increases in Phase III baseline while the participants were in Phase II intervention. Increased generalization from Phases II to III could likely be explained due to the response similarities in those two skills (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). Based upon the findings of this study, speech-language pathologists should evaluate phonological awareness in the children in their caseloads prior to kindergarten entry, and should allocate time during speech therapy to enhance phonological awareness and letter knowledge to support the development of both skills concurrently. Also, classroom teachers should collaborate with speech-language pathologists to identify at-risk students in their classrooms and successfully implement evidence-based phonemic awareness instruction. Future research should repeat this study including larger groups of children, children with combined speech and language delays, children of different ages, and ESOL students