This research investigated the effects of age, sex, male vs female voice, and unfamiliar vs familiar voice upon the infants body movements. The sample consisted of 40 middle-class infants, balanced according to sex, at four age levels -- 3, 6, 9, 12 months. Four tape-recorded stimulus conditions -- mother's voice, father's voice, female stranger’s voice, and male stranger's voice -- were presented to each infant. The body movements of the infants were recorded at one frame per second by an 8mm. camera. Analyses of variance were performed to determine any differences among the four stimulus conditions and control periods. The 12-month-old infants showed more activity to the father's voice than to the male stranger's voice or to the mother's voice. These subjects also showed more activity to the female stranger's voice than to the male stranger's voice. Female subjects were more active than male subjects to the unfamiliar voices on Trial 1. On Trial 2 females showed greater activity than males to the familiar voice. Females exhibited greater activity than males overall. Males showed greater activity than females to the cessation of the female voice and to the initiation of their father's voice. Results were discussed in terms of the infant's development as affected by sex of the infant and the cross-over effect found by Friedlander (1970). / Master of Science

Postlingually deafened cochlear implant (CI) adults have large variability in speech perception abilities. While CIs are one of the most successful neural prosthetic devices, they are not able to adequately provide fine structure cues which results in a degraded signal for the listener to interpret. While behavioral measures remain the gold standard for determining speech perception abilities, an objective measure is needed for patients who are unable to provide reliable behavioral responses. Behavioral, cognitive, and neural measures were collected in this study to identify potential neural biomarkers that correlate with speech perception performance. Behavioral experiments evaluated participants' abilities to identify, discriminate, and recognize words as well as sentences in quiet and in noise. Cognitive measures were assessed to determine the roles of attention, impulse control, memory, and cognitive flexibility on speech recognition. Auditory event-related potentials (ERP) were obtained with a double oddball paradigm to produce the mismatch negativity (MMN) response, which has been shown to have associations with phonetic categorical perception at the group level. The results indicated that executive function is highly predictive of speech performance and that the MMN is associated with categorical perception at the individual level. These findings are clinically relevant to determining appropriate follow-up care post-implantation.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--James Madison University, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Doctoral)--Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität.

Το αντικείμενο αυτής της εργασίας είναι η μελέτη των στελεχιαίων ακουστικών προκλητών δυναμικών σε παιδιά με μαθησιακές δυσκολίες. Στόχος είναι η εξέταση και η σύγκριση τυχόν διαφορών ως προς το χρόνο έλευσης των κυμάτων στον εγκέφαλο μετά το ερέθισμα click και ως προς το αν οι λανθάνοντες χρόνοι ήταν μέσα στα φυσιολογικά επίπεδα μεταξύ των παιδιών με μαθησιακές δυσκολίες και των φυσιολογικών παιδιών (χωρίς μαθησιακές δυσκολίες). Το δείγμα μας αποτελείται από 20 παιδιά ηλικίας από 7 εως 14 ετών. Τα δέκα από αυτά είναι παιδιά με μαθησιακές δυσκολίες επίσημα διαγνωσμένα από τον κρατικό φορέα Κ.Δ.Α.Υ. ενώ τα υπόλοιπα αποτελούν το συγκριτικό δείγμα της μελέτης. Τα κύματα που εξετάσαμε ήταν το I-II-III-IV-V καθώς και οι διαφορές τους III-I, V-III, V-I. Επιπλέον, εκτός από το χρόνο έλευσης αυτών των κυμάτων εξετάσαμε και το αν οι χρόνοι αυτοί ήταν μέσα στα φυσιολογικά πλαίσια. Συμπερασματικά αναφέρω, πως σύμφωνα με τον έλεγχο των μηδενικών υποθέσεων που έγινε με τη στατιστική δοκιμασία Student’s t-test, η μέση τιμή του χρόνου που απαιτείται για την έλευση των κυμάτων στα φυσιολογικά παιδιά είναι ίση με την αντίστοιχη μέση τιμή των παιδιών με μαθησιακές δυσκολίες.Επίσης, η μέση τιμή των χρονικών διαφορών έλευσης των κυμάτων στα φυσιολογικά παιδιά είναι ίση με την αντίστοιχη μέση τιμή των παιδιών με μαθησιακές δυσκολίες. Για κάθε ένα από τα κύματα I-V αλλά και για τις αντίστοιχες διαφορές τους ελέγχθηκαν μηδενικές υποθέσεις του τύπου «Η παρατήρηση παθολογικών λανθανόντων χρόνων είναι ανεξάρτητη της ύπαρξης μαθησιακών δυσκολιών». Από αυτή τη μελέτη βρέθηκε το εξής σημαντικό, πως το 50% των παιδιών μεμαθησιακές δυσκολίες παρουσίασαν εκτός φυσιολογικών ορίων χρόνους για το κύμα II στο αριστερό αυτί. Παρατηρήθηκε δηλ. στατιστικώς σημαντική διαφορά στο χρόνο έλευσης του κύματος II στο δεξί αυτί (R-tII) στα παιδιά με μαθησιακές δυσκολίες έναντι των υπολοίπων (p=0,026). Ο έλεγχος της μηδενικής υπόθεσης έγινε με τη στατιστική δοκιμασία Fisher’s exact test. Τα στελεχιαία ακουστικά προκλητά δυναμικά εγκεφαλικού στελέχους, όντας εύκολα στη χορήγηση, θα μπορούσαν να χρησιμοποιηθούν ως ένα άμεσο και εύκολο διαγνωστικό εργαλείο για τα παιδιά με μαθησιακές δυσκολίες, έτσι ώστε να αρχίσει η λογοθεραπευτική παρέμβαση και αποκατάσταση των προβλημάτων από μικρή ηλικία. / The object of this work is the study of auditory evoked potential in children with learning disorders. Our aim is to examine and compare any differences in the time of arrival of waves in the brain after the stimulus click and as to whether the latent period was within the normal levels among children with learning disabilities and normal children (without learning difficulties).

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that manifests as a developmentally inappropriate pattern of inattention, and hyperactivity or impulsivity. ADHD is a multifactorial disorder with inter alia deficits in selective attention processing. The current diagnosis of ADHD is error-prone as it relies on subjective descriptions and external observations of behavior. Measures that are less reliant on subjective descriptions can enable more accurate and informative diagnoses of ADHD. Wang et al. (2016) have identified two event-related potential (ERP) components, posterior contralateral N2 (N2pc) and distractor positivity (PD) as predictors of ADHD symptom severity in children. N2pc reflects target selection and PD reflects distractor suppression during visual selective attention. The present study aimed to examine how target-evoked N2pc and distractor-evoked PD related to attentional capacity in non-clinical adults. Participants were presented with a visual search paradigm and a self-report scale, the Everyday Life Attention Scale (ELAS). The amplitude of target-evoked N2pc and distractor-evoked PD amplitude was compared to ELAS score in multiple linear regression models. Results displayed that the peak amplitude of target-evoked N2pc was a significant predictor of attentional capacity (as measured with ELAS), while the peak amplitude of distractor-evoked PD was not associated with attentional capacity. Participants with higher attentional capacity (ELAS score) displayed less negative peak amplitudes of target-evoked N2pc. This seems to suggest that target selection, but not distractor suppression in nonclinical adults can predict attentional capacity. However, due to a limited sample size, further research is needed before drawing any major conclusions.

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(医学) / 甲第19273号 / 医博第4037号 / 新制||医||1011(附属図書館) / 32275 / 京都大学大学院医学研究科医学専攻 / (主査)教授 渡邉 大, 教授 村井 俊哉, 教授 高橋 淳 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Medical Science / Kyoto University / DFAM

This study utilized paired tones at 1000 Hz with a 500 ms interpair interval and a 10 s interstimulus interval to assess sensory gating. Forty-two participants, ranging from 3-72 years of age were used to observe maturational changes in amplitude, latency, and suppression ratios of the P50 waveform. Previous research has shown that in normal adults the amplitude in response to the second of the paired tones is significantly suppressed compared to the amplitude in response to the first tone. The current study showed amplitude decreased with age to middle adulthood, where it increased slightly to later adulthood. Latencies decreased with age. Suppression ratios decreased from childhood to adolescence, with an increase from early adulthood to later adulthood. Sensory gating would appear to be a later developing aspect of human sensory physiology. Also similar to many other brain functions, sensory gating decreases in later adulthood.

No description available.