Event-Related Potentials Elicited by Phonetic Errors Differentiate Children With Speech Sound Disorder and Typically Developing Peers

Purpose A growing body of research suggests that a deficit in speech perception abilities contributes to the development of speech sound disorder (SSD). However, little work has been done to characterize the neurophysiological processes indexing speech perception deficits in this population. The primary aim of this study was to compare the neural activity underlying speech perception in young children with SSD and with typical development (TD). Method Twenty-eight children ages 4;1–6;0 (years;months) participated in this study. Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while children completed a speech perception task that included phonetic (speech sound) and lexical (meaning) matches and mismatches. Groups were compared on their judgment accuracy for matches and mismatches as well as the mean amplitude of the phonological mapping negativity (PMN) and N400 ERP components. Results Children with SSD demonstrated lower judgment accuracy across the phonetic and lexical conditions compared to peers with TD. The ERPs elicited by lexical matches and mismatches did not distinguish the groups. However, in the phonetic condition, the SSD group exhibited a more consistent left-lateralized PMN effect and a delayed N400 effect over frontal sites compared to the TD group. Conclusions These findings provide some of the first evidence of a delay in the neurophysiological processing of phonological information for young children with SSD compared to their peers with TD. This delay was not present for the processing of lexical information, indicating a unique difference between children with SSD and with TD related to speech perception of phonetic errors. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16915579

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Brain event-related potentials to phoneme contrasts and their correlation to reading skills in school-age children

International Journal of Behavioral Development ◽

10.1177/0165025417728582 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 42 (3) ◽

pp. 357-372 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jarmo Hämäläinen ◽

Nicole Landi ◽

Otto Loberg ◽

Kaisa Lohvansuu ◽

Kenneth Pugh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Speech Perception ◽

Phonological Processing ◽

Reading Skills ◽

Speech Sound ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

School Age Children ◽

School Age ◽

The Us ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Us Children

Development of reading skills has been shown to be tightly linked to phonological processing skills and to some extent to speech perception abilities. Although speech perception is also known to play a role in reading development, it is not clear which processes underlie this connection. Using event-related potentials (ERPs) we investigated the speech processing mechanisms for common and uncommon sound contrasts (/ba/-/da/-/ga/ and /ata/-/at: a/) with respect to the native language of school-age children in Finland and the US. In addition, a comprehensive behavioral test battery of reading and phonological processing was administered. ERPs revealed that the children could discriminate between the speech sound contrasts (place of articulation and phoneme length) regardless of their native language. No differences emerged between the Finnish and US children in their change detection responses. The brain responses to the phoneme length contrast, however, correlated robustly with reading scores in the US children, with larger responses being linked to poorer reading skills. Finnish children also showed correlations between the reading and phonological measures and ERP responses, but the pattern of results was not as clear as for the US children. The results indicate that speech perception is linked to reading skills and this link is more robust for uncommon speech sound contrasts.

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The Role of Speech Perception in Persistent Speech Sound Disorder

Perspectives on School-Based Issues ◽

10.1044/sbi16.2.18 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 18-24 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Kathryn L. Cabbage

Keyword(s):

Speech Perception ◽

Speech Sound ◽

Speech Sound Disorder

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Logatome Discrimination in Cochlear Implant Users: Subjective Tests Compared to the Mismatch Negativity

The Scientific World JOURNAL ◽

10.1100/tsw.2010.28 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

pp. 329-339 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Torsten Rahne ◽

Michael Ziese ◽

Dorothea Rostalski ◽

Roland Mühler

Keyword(s):

Speech Perception ◽

Cochlear Implant ◽

Mismatch Negativity ◽

Speech Intelligibility ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Normal Hearing ◽

Discrimination Test ◽

Speech Database ◽

Automated Speech Recognition ◽

Related Potentials

This paper describes a logatome discrimination test for the assessment of speech perception in cochlear implant users (CI users), based on a multilingual speech database, the Oldenburg Logatome Corpus, which was originally recorded for the comparison of human and automated speech recognition. The logatome discrimination task is based on the presentation of 100 logatome pairs (i.e., nonsense syllables) with balanced representations of alternating “vowel-replacement” and “consonant-replacement” paradigms in order to assess phoneme confusions. Thirteen adult normal hearing listeners and eight adult CI users, including both good and poor performers, were included in the study and completed the test after their speech intelligibility abilities were evaluated with an established sentence test in noise. Furthermore, the discrimination abilities were measured electrophysiologically by recording the mismatch negativity (MMN) as a component of auditory event-related potentials. The results show a clear MMN response only for normal hearing listeners and CI users with good performance, correlating with their logatome discrimination abilities. Higher discrimination scores for vowel-replacement paradigms than for the consonant-replacement paradigms were found. We conclude that the logatome discrimination test is well suited to monitor the speech perception skills of CI users. Due to the large number of available spoken logatome items, the Oldenburg Logatome Corpus appears to provide a useful and powerful basis for further development of speech perception tests for CI users.

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Brain Responses to World Knowledge Violations: A Comparison of Stimulus- and Fixation-triggered Event-related Potentials and Neural Oscillations

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_00731 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 27 (5) ◽

pp. 1017-1028 ◽

Cited By ~ 15

Author(s):

Paul Metzner ◽

Titus von der Malsburg ◽

Shravan Vasishth ◽

Frank Rösler

Keyword(s):

Word Meaning ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Visual Presentation ◽

World Knowledge ◽

N400 Effect ◽

Brain Potentials ◽

Time Frequency ◽

Gamma Range ◽

Brain Responses ◽

Related Potentials

Recent research has shown that brain potentials time-locked to fixations in natural reading can be similar to brain potentials recorded during rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP). We attempted two replications of Hagoort, Hald, Bastiaansen, and Petersson [Hagoort, P., Hald, L., Bastiaansen, M., & Petersson, K. M. Integration of word meaning and world knowledge in language comprehension. Science, 304, 438–441, 2004] to determine whether this correspondence also holds for oscillatory brain responses. Hagoort et al. reported an N400 effect and synchronization in the theta and gamma range following world knowledge violations. Our first experiment (n = 32) used RSVP and replicated both the N400 effect in the ERPs and the power increase in the theta range in the time–frequency domain. In the second experiment (n = 49), participants read the same materials freely while their eye movements and their EEG were monitored. First fixation durations, gaze durations, and regression rates were increased, and the ERP showed an N400 effect. An analysis of time–frequency representations showed synchronization in the delta range (1–3 Hz) and desynchronization in the upper alpha range (11–13 Hz) but no theta or gamma effects. The results suggest that oscillatory EEG changes elicited by world knowledge violations are different in natural reading and RSVP. This may reflect differences in how representations are constructed and retrieved from memory in the two presentation modes.

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Exploring the Overlap Between Dyslexia and Speech Sound Production Deficits

Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools ◽

10.1044/2018_lshss-dyslc-18-0008 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 49 (4) ◽

pp. 774-786 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Kathryn L. Cabbage ◽

Kelly Farquharson ◽

Jenya Iuzzini-Seigel ◽

Jennifer Zuk ◽

Tiffany P. Hogan

Keyword(s):

At Risk ◽

Young Children ◽

Speech Production ◽

Sound Production ◽

Speech Sound ◽

Speech Sound Disorder ◽

Speech Language Pathologists ◽

Speech Language Pathologist ◽

History Of ◽

Production Errors

Purpose Children with dyslexia have speech production deficits in a variety of spoken language contexts. In this article, we discuss the nature of speech production errors in children with dyslexia, including those who have a history of speech sound disorder and those who do not, to familiarize speech-language pathologists with speech production–specific risk factors that may help predict or identify dyslexia in young children. Method In this tutorial, we discuss the role of a phonological deficit in children with dyslexia and how this may manifest as speech production errors, sometimes in conjunction with a speech sound disorder but sometimes not. We also briefly review other factors outside the realm of phonology that may alert the speech-language pathologist to possible dyslexia. Results Speech-language pathologists possess unique knowledge that directly contributes to the identification and remediation of children with dyslexia. We present several clinical recommendations related to speech production deficits in children with dyslexia. We also review what is known about how and when children with speech sound disorder are most at risk for dyslexia. Conclusion Speech-language pathologists have a unique opportunity to assist in the identification of young children who are at risk for dyslexia.

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