Dyslexia May Be a Hearing Problem Too
August 1, 2011, 4:20 pm
Dyslexia May Be a Hearing Problem Too
By TARA PARKER-POPENew research suggests dyslexia may be more than just a reading problem, but also an issue of how the brain processes spoken language.
A study published last week in the journal Science suggests that how dyslexics hear language may be more important than previously realized. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found that people with dyslexia have more trouble recognizing voices than those without dyslexia.
John Gabrieli, a professor of cognitive neuroscience, and Tyler Perrachione, a graduate student, asked people with and without dyslexia to listen to recorded voices paired with cartoon avatars on computer screens. The subjects tried matching the voices to the correct avatars speaking English and then an unfamiliar language, Mandarin.
Nondyslexics matched voices to avatars correctly almost 70 percent of the time when the language was English and half the time when the language was Mandarin. But people with dyslexia were able to do so only half the time, whether the language was English or Mandarin. Experts not involved in the study said that was a striking disparity.
To learn more, read the full story, “Study Says Dyslexia May Have Auditory Tie,”
