Two sensory systems are intrinsic to learning to read. Written words enter the brain through the visual system and associated sounds through the auditory system. The task before the beginning reader is quite basic. She must learn correspondences between orthographic tokens and phonemic utterances, and she must do this to the point that there is seamless automatic ‘connection’ between these sensorially distinct units of language. It is self-evident then that learning to read requires formation of cross-sensory associations to the point that deeply encoded multisensory representations are attained. While the majority of individuals manage this task to a high degree of expertise, some struggle to attain even rudimentary capabilities. Why do dyslexic individuals, who learn well in myriad other domains, fail at this particular task? Here, we examine the literature as it pertains to multisensory processing in dyslexia. We find substantial support for multisensory deficits in dyslexia, and make the case that to fully understand its neurological basis, it will be necessary to thoroughly probe the integrity of auditory-visual integration mechanisms.

Lay AbstractThe Weak Central Coherence hypothesis is one of the most important cognitive theories of ASD. It argues that individuals with ASD have a detail-focused cognitive style that makes it hard for them to integrate information into its broader context. In this study, we examined whether this prediction correctly explains how young children with ASD understand words in sentences. Many words have multiple meanings (e.g., the homophones 'bat' or 'bank'). The Weak Central Coherence hypothesis predicts a difficulty using context to guess which meaning is correct. In our study, we used eye tracking to see if there are differences in how 7-year-old ASD and TD children understand ambiguous words. Children heard sentences containing ambiguous words while they looked at pictures. The context provided by the sentence meant that the pictures either were or were not related to the appropriate meaning of the ambiguous word. We found that, in both groups, children gazed at the pictures much more when context meant that they were related. This suggests that both groups similarly use context to determine the meanings of ambiguous words, which goes against the predictions of Weak Central Coherence, and suggests that refinement of the theory is necessary. explained by co-occurring language impairments. Here we provide a strong test of these claims, using the visual world eye tracking paradigm to examine the online mechanisms by which children with autism resolve linguistic ambiguity. To address concerns about both language impairments and compensatory strategies, we used a sample whose verbal skills were strong and whose average age (7;6) was lower than previous work on lexical ambiguity resolution in ASD. Participants (40 with autism and 40 controls) heard sentences with ambiguous words in contexts that either strongly supported one reading or were consistent with both (John fed/saw the bat). We measured activation of the unintended meaning through implicit semantic priming of an associate (looks to a depicted baseball glove). Contrary to the predictions of weak central coherence, children with ASD, like controls, quickly used context to resolve ambiguity, selecting appropriate meanings within a second. We discuss how these results constrain the generality of weak central coherence.

Gervain Judit - Kovács Kristóf - Lukács Ágnes - Racsmány Mihály (szerk.): Az ezerarcú elme. Tanulmányok Pléh Csaba 60. születésnapjára (Balogh Tibor) Nagy László (Miklós): Az ismeretek alkalmazásának pszichológiai problémái (Duró Lajos)  Kiss Szabolcs: Elmeolvasás (Hahn Noémi) Simon Baron-Cohen: Elemi különbség. Férfiak, nők és a szélsőséges férfiagy (Hahn Noémi)  Jean-Pierre Changeux: Raison et plaisir (Pléh Csaba) Eric R. Kandel: In search of memory. The emergence of a new science of mind (Pléh Csaba) Daniel Schacter: Az emlékezet hét bűne (Garab Edit Anna)