Neural Correlates of Statistical Learning in Developmental Dyslexia: An Electroencephalography Study

Abstract

The human brain extracts statistical regularities from the surrounding environment in a process referred to as statistical learning. Recent behavioural evidence suggests that developmental dyslexia affects statistical learning. However, surprisingly few neurophysiological studies have assessed how developmental dyslexia affects the neural processing underlying statistical learning. In this study, we used electroencephalography to explore the neural correlates of an important aspect of statistical learning, sensitivity to transitional probabilities, in individuals with developmental dyslexia. Adults diagnosed with developmental dyslexia (n = 17) and controls (n = 19) were exposed to a continuous stream of sound triplets in which a few triplet endings were location deviants (i.e., were presented from an unexpected speaker direction) or statistical deviants (i.e., had a low transitional probability given the triplet's first two sounds). Location deviants elicited a large location mismatch negativity (MMN), which was larger in controls than dyslexics. Statistical deviants elicited a small, yet significant statistical MMN (sMMN) in controls, whereas the dyslexic individuals did not exhibit a statistical MMN. These results suggest that the neural mechanisms underlying statistical learning are impaired in developmental dyslexia.

Brain-correlates of processing local dependencies within a statistical learning paradigm

“…Contrary to a classical oddball paradigm where a change in the stimuli is instantly reflected in auditory memory responses, in the current paradigm a longer exposure time is required to learn the transitional probabilities. On this basis, detection of a statistical deviant engages a different cognitive mechanism than classical oddball stimuli [47][48][49] . Furthermore, a recent statistical learning study using EEG reported that brain responses elicited by statistical deviants had a more frontal scalp distribution than those elicited by location deviants 48 .…”

“…On this basis, detection of a statistical deviant engages a different cognitive mechanism than classical oddball stimuli [47][48][49] . Furthermore, a recent statistical learning study using EEG reported that brain responses elicited by statistical deviants had a more frontal scalp distribution than those elicited by location deviants 48 . This is in line with our findings showing stronger activations over the pre-SMA and premotor cortex compared to results from classical auditory oddball-studies.…”

Exploration of source/sink phase connectivity patterns for the study of language processing through inter-channel causality of EEG signals

“…Durante las tareas relacionadas con la lectura, las diferencias entre los niños disléxicos y los del grupo de control parecen estar más localizadas en los sitios temporoparietales izquierdos. Finalmente, Daikoku et al (2023) examinaron las correlaciones neurales de durante la transición de estímulos en individuos con DD. Los hallazgos indican que los mecanismos neurales subyacentes a la detección pre-atentiva de cambios acústicos y al aprendizaje auditivo implícito están afectados en la dislexia evolutiva.…”