Sensitivity to amplitude envelope rise time in infancy and vocabulary development at 3 years: A significant relationship.

Here we report, for the first time, a relationship between sensitivity to amplitude envelope rise time in infants and their later vocabulary development. Recent research in auditory neuroscience has revealed that amplitude envelope rise time plays a mechanistic role in speech encoding. Accordingly, individual differences in infant discrimination of amplitude envelope rise times could be expected to relate to individual differences in language acquisition. A group of 50 infants taking part in a longitudinal study contributed rise time discrimination thresholds when aged 7 and 10 months, and their vocabulary development was measured at 3 years. Experimental measures of phonological sensitivity were also administered at 3 years. Linear mixed effect models taking rise time sensitivity as the dependent variable, and controlling for non-verbal IQ, showed significant predictive effects for vocabulary at 3 years, but not for the phonological sensitivity measures. The significant longitudinal relationship between amplitude envelope rise time discrimination and vocabulary development suggests that early rise time discrimination abilities have an impact on speech processing by infants.Australian Research Counci

Why And How Do Students Need To Have Their Mental Health Considered In Engineering Schools?

This paper addresses the students’ mental health in higher education and more specifically in engineering schools. Several studies have shown student mental health and wellbeing can affect students’ academic performance. We investigate how student’s mental health is considered in engineering schools as well as how it should be and study the case of our engineering school. First, we present several research and studies conducted on how mental health is considered in higher education and its impact on academic performance. In the second part, we study the case of our engineering school with the implementation of a survey among students and teachers to collect their feedback. We add to this survey a collection of testimonies from students. We will analyse how mental health is considered and the impact of addressing mental health on student success in an engineering school. Finally, we present possible solutions to improve the consideration of mental health. These solutions are aimed at administrations, teaching staff and engineering school students. Indeed, the consideration of mental health must be global and concern the entire educational organisation

A neural oscillations perspective on phonological development and phonological processing in developmental dyslexia

Children’s ability to reflect upon and manipulate the sounds in words (’phonological awareness’) develops as part of natural language acquisition, supports reading acquisition, and develops further as reading and spelling are learned. Children with developmental dyslexia typically have impairments in phonological awareness. Many developmental factors contribute to individual differences in phonological development. One important source of individual differences may be the child’s sensory/neural processing of the speech signal from an amplitude modulation (~ energy or intensity variation) perspective, which may affect the quality of the sensory/neural representations (’phonological representations’) that support phonological awareness. During speech encoding, brain electrical rhythms (oscillations, rhythmic variations in neural excitability) re-calibrate their temporal activity to be in time with rhythmic energy variations in the speech signal. The accuracy of this neural alignment or ’entrainment’ process is related to speech intelligibility. Recent neural studies demonstrate atypical oscillatory function at slower rates in children with developmental dyslexia. Potential relations with the development of phonological awareness by children with dyslexia are discussed.Medical Research Council, G0400574 and G090237

Enhanced Syllable Discrimination Thresholds in Musicians

Speech processing inherently relies on the perception of specific, rapidly changing spectral and temporal acoustic features. Advanced acoustic perception is also integral to musical expertise, and accordingly several studies have demonstrated a significant relationship between musical training and superior processing of various aspects of speech. Speech and music appear to overlap in spectral and temporal features; however, it remains unclear which of these acoustic features, crucial for speech processing, are most closely associated with musical training. The present study examined the perceptual acuity of musicians to the acoustic components of speech necessary for intra-phonemic discrimination of synthetic syllables. We compared musicians and non-musicians on discrimination thresholds of three synthetic speech syllable continua that varied in their spectral and temporal discrimination demands, specifically voice onset time (VOT) and amplitude envelope cues in the temporal domain. Musicians demonstrated superior discrimination only for syllables that required resolution of temporal cues. Furthermore, performance on the temporal syllable continua positively correlated with the length and intensity of musical training. These findings support one potential mechanism by which musical training may selectively enhance speech perception, namely by reinforcing temporal acuity and/or perception of amplitude rise time, and implications for the translation of musical training to long-term linguistic abilities.Grammy FoundationWilliam F. Milton Fun

Sensory theories of developmental dyslexia: three challenges for research.

Recent years have seen the publication of a range of new theories suggesting that the basis of dyslexia might be sensory dysfunction. In this Opinion article, the evidence for and against several prominent sensory theories of dyslexia is closely scrutinized. Contrary to the causal claims being made, my analysis suggests that many proposed sensory deficits might result from the effects of reduced reading experience on the dyslexic brain. I therefore suggest that longitudinal studies of sensory processing, beginning in infancy, are required to successfully identify the neural basis of developmental dyslexia. Such studies could have a powerful impact on remediation.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from NPG at http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v16/n1/abs/nrn3836.html

Traitement Visuel chez l'Enfant Prématuré et Atteinte du Système Magnocellulaire/Dorsal : Synthèse et Perspectives

National audienceLe canal visuel est une entrée essentielle pour l'acquisition de connaissances scolaires. La population grandissante des enfants nés prématurément présente fréquemment ces deux difficultés : problèmes d'acquisitions scolaires (notamment la lecture) et traitement visuel inopérant. Cet article a pour objectif de clarifier au mieux la spécificité du traitement visuel de certains enfants prématurés. Pour ce, nous nous appuyons sur des études comportementales et neurophysiologiques qui excluent les enfants porteurs d'atteintes neurologiques ou périphériques pouvant être à l'origine d'un traitement visuel déficients chez ces enfants. Etant donné que les conditions de maturité cérébrale et d'expérience environnementale précoce sont différentes chez le prématuré, il n'est pas surprenant que le traitement visuel de ces enfants se construise différemment de celui d'enfants nés à terme. Un consensus semble émerger de l'ensemble des données électrophysiologiques et comportementales présentées, à savoir un déficit du traitement des informations visuelles liées au mouvement, à la direction et à la perception d'une forme globale, informations spécifiquement traitées par les voies magnocellulaire/dorsale. Ces informations étant traitées par un système neuronal spécifique, la prématurité pourrait ainsi entraîner des altérations potentielles du développement de ces voies chez les enfants prématurés. Les répercussions possibles sur la scolarité ultérieure de ces enfants seront discutées, en nous appuyant sur un exemple, bien documenté dans la littérature scientifique, du lien entre un dysfonctionnement du système magnocellulaire et une compétence scolaire spécifique : la lecture

L’hyperlexie : une pathologie du langage méconnue

International audienc

Effets orthographiques sur la perception des mots parlés (Etudes chez l'apprenti lecteur et le lecteur expert)

Cette thèse examine l'influence de l'orthographe sur la perception de la parole à différents niveaux de développement du système orthographique. Des effets facilitateurs du voisinage orthographique sont observés en modalité auditive. En effet, les adultes et les enfants bons lecteurs sont plus rapides pour traiter des mots parlés ayant beaucoup de voisins orthographiques (i.e., ayant une formation orthographique proche de beaucoup d'autres mots) que des mots ayant peu de voisins orthographiques. De plus lorsque des adultes doivent générer un voisin orthographique (i.e., un mot proche phonologiquement) du mot entendu, ils fournissent préférentiellement un voisin orthographique. L'ensemble des résultats, interprété via le modèle bimodal d'activation interactive combiné avec le modèle de restructuration lexicale, suggère que les connaissances orthographiques influencent la perception en temps réel des mots parlés mais aussi la qualité des représentations phonologiques préexistantes.AIX-MARSEILLE1-BU Lettres (130012101) / SudocSudocFranceF