Attentional But Not Pre-Attentive Neural Measures of Auditory Discrimination Are Atypical in Children With Developmental Language Disorder

Abstract

We examined neural indices of pre-attentive phonological and attentional auditory discrimination in children with developmental language disorder (DLD, n=23) and typically developing (n=16) peers from a geographically isolated Russian-speaking population with an elevated prevalence of DLD. Pre-attentive phonological MMN components were robust and did not differ in two groups. Children with DLD showed attenuated P3 and atypically distributed P2 components in the attentional auditory discrimination task; P2 and P3 amplitudes were linked to working memory capacity, development of complex syntax, and vocabulary. The results corroborate findings of reduced processing capacity in DLD and support a multifactorial view of the disorder.

Cohesion of Cortical Language Networks During Word Processing Is Predicted by a Common Polymorphism in the SETBP1 Gene

“…The pattern of associations between beta cohesion and language processing observed in our study, namely, the observation that atypically high beta cohesion was associated with poorer receptive vocabulary and lower ability to comprehend complex sentences, converge with previous research suggesting that beta oscillations and beta desynchronization are key players in higher‐order cognitive and linguistic processing, including attentional processing and semantic memory access (Bastiaansen & Hagoort, 2006). These findings are in concert with recent findings of atypical neural responses in attentional/working memory as well as lexical/semantic processing tasks in children with DLD (Malins et al., 2013; Stevens, Sanders, & Neville, 2006), including the present sample of AZ school‐aged children (Kornilov et al., 2014; Kornilov et al., 2015).…”

“…Of these, twenty‐three met criteria for DLD (age ranged from 7.33 to 15.25, M = 10.12, SD = 2.40; sixteen boys) and sixteen were classified as typically developing (TD; age ranged from 7.17 to 15.83, M = 11.14, SD = 2.18; seven boys). The language status classification was based on a set of expressive and receptive language measures obtained using a comprehensive standardized language development test in conjunction with a language sample analysis (see Kornilov et al., 2014, 2015, 2016; Rakhlin et al., 2013, for detailed descriptions). All children demonstrated normal hearing acuity by passing a bilateral hearing screening at 25 dB (500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz).…”

N1-P2: Neural markers of temporal expectation and response discrimination in interval timing

“…Indeed, the P2 component has been related to working memory processes (Lefebvre et al, 2005, Finnigan et al, 2011. This is in line with data showing that the P2 component is related to an attentional allocation process (Crowley and Colrain 2004;Lijffijt et al, 2009;Kornilov et al, 2014). Lijfftj et al (2009) proposed that the P2 component may serve as a gating mechanism for some of the subsequent working memory activity.…”

Lexical processing deficits in children with developmental language disorder: An event-related potentials study

“…As part of the larger study, we have been examining various ERP indices of cognitive and language processing in the same sample that we report on in this manuscript. Two other ERP studies (Kornilov et al, 2014) found that children with DLD from the same population displayed atypical attentional auditory processing (manifested in a decreased P3b amplitude) but not preattentive auditory processing (manifested in intact mismatch negativity amplitudes and latencies). In individual differences analyses, deficits in attentional auditory processing were linked to the development of complex syntax, vocabulary, and verbal working memory.…”