Atypical auditory refractory periods in children from lower socio-economic status backgrounds: ERP evidence for a role of selective attention

Individual differences in neural mechanisms of selective auditory attention in preschoolers from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds: an event‐related potentials study

“…The mean amplitudes of ERPs were measured between 100 and 200 ms post‐stimulus onset, collapsed across the linguistic and nonlinguistic conditions, consistent with previous studies using this paradigm with young children from lower SES families (Neville et al ., ; Stevens et al ., ; Stevens et al ., ). In line with a recent study that measured ERPs in lower SES preschoolers with the same paradigm (Neville et al ., ), three electrode aggregates were created as follows: anterior: F7/8, F3/4, FT7/8, FC5/6; central: T7/8, C5/6, CP5/6, C3/4; posterior: P7/8, P3/4, PO3/4, O1/2.…”

“…This fundamental ability is posited as a critical component of foundations for education (Stevens & Bavelier, 2012). Neural mechanisms of selective attention are particularly vulnerable in children from lower SES families (Stevens, Lauinger & Neville, 2009;Stevens, Paulsen, Yasen & Neville, 2015). However, despite such heightened vulnerability, these neural mechanisms can also be enhanced via targeted interventions (Neville, Stevens, Pakulak, Bell, Fanning et al, 2013).…”

“…In accordance with the considerable evidence linking various aspects of attention to numerous nonverbal cognitive abilities in adults and children, we posited that selective attention would account for variability in nonverbal cognitive performance in preschoolers from lower SES families. To test this hypothesis, we assessed neural markers of selective attention, a brain function that is both vulnerable and enhanceable in lower SES children (Neville et al, 2013;Stevens et al, 2009;Stevens et al, 2015). information from other concurrent sources (Desimone & Duncan, 1995;Hillyard, Hink, Schwent & Picton, 1973;Serences & Kastner, 2014;Yantis, 2008).…”

Working memory mediates the effects of gestational age at birth on expressive language development in children.

“…Although direct effects of both SES and HLE upon language have been described (Tomblin, Smith, & Zhang, 1997), two other explanations for this finding are plausible. First, the contribution of environments to language skills might be mediated by other neurocognitive systems that were not tested in our sample, such as auditory processing or executive functions, for which both associations with language development (Benasich, The mediation role of memory on language 21 21 Thomas, Choudhury & Leppanen, 2002;Cantiani et al, 2016;Hackman & Farah, 2009) and socio-demographic factors (Stevens, Paulsen, Yasen, & Neville, 2015;Hackman, Gallop, Evans, & Farah, 2015) have been described. An alternative explanation could be that the relation between SES and HLE and language development is mediated by more proximal familial factors that were not tested in our sample, such as parenting style or mother-child dyadic interactions (Perkins, Finegood, & Swain, 2013).…”

The Emerging (Social) Neuroscience of SES

“…To illustrate this point, let us look more closely at the neuroscience literature on SES and selective attention. This research has tended to use ERP or EEG paradigms and selective listening tasks, in which participants are cued to attend or ignore auditory stimuli (D'Angiulli, Herdman, Stapells, & Hertzman, 2008;D'Angiulli et al, 2012;Stevens, Lauinger, & Neville, 2009;Stevens, Paulsen, Yasen, & Neville, 2014). The goal of these studies has been to use neuroscience techniques to identify the neural basis of SES effects on executive function.…”