The role of reading experience in atypical cortical tracking of speech and speech-in-noise in dyslexia
Florian Destoky,
Julie Bertels,
Maxime Niesen,
Vincent Wens,
Marc Vander Ghinst,
Antonin Rovai,
Nicola Trotta,
Marie Lallier,
Xavier De Tiège,
Mathieu Bourguignon
Affiliations
Florian Destoky
Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Corresponding author.
Julie Bertels
Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Consciousness, Cognition and Computation Group, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Maxime Niesen
Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Service d'ORL et de Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, ULB-Hôpital Erasme, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
Vincent Wens
Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Department of Functional Neuroima ging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Marc Vander Ghinst
Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Service d'ORL et de Chirurgie Cervico-Faciale, ULB-Hôpital Erasme, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels 1070, Belgium
Antonin Rovai
Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Department of Functional Neuroima ging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Nicola Trotta
Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Department of Functional Neuroima ging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Marie Lallier
BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian 20009, Spain
Xavier De Tiège
Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; Department of Functional Neuroima ging, Service of Nuclear Medicine, CUB Hôpital Erasme, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Mathieu Bourguignon
Laboratoire de Neuroanatomie et Neuroimagerie translationnelles, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 808 Leenik Street, Brussels 1070, Belgium; BCBL, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian 20009, Spain; Laboratory of Neurophysiology and Movement Biomechanics, UNI-ULB Neuroscience Institute, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium
Dyslexia is a frequent developmental disorder in which reading acquisition is delayed and that is usually associated with difficulties understanding speech in noise. At the neuronal level, children with dyslexia were reported to display abnormal cortical tracking of speech (CTS) at phrasal rate. Here, we aimed to determine if abnormal tracking relates to reduced reading experience, and if it is modulated by the severity of dyslexia or the presence of acoustic noise.We included 26 school-age children with dyslexia, 26 age-matched controls and 26 reading-level matched controls. All were native French speakers. Children's brain activity was recorded with magnetoencephalography while they listened to continuous speech in noiseless and multiple noise conditions. CTS values were compared between groups, conditions and hemispheres, and also within groups, between children with mild and severe dyslexia.Syllabic CTS was significantly reduced in the right superior temporal gyrus in children with dyslexia compared with controls matched for age but not for reading level. Severe dyslexia was characterized by lower rapid automatized naming (RAN) abilities compared with mild dyslexia, and phrasal CTS lateralized to the right hemisphere in children with mild dyslexia and all control groups but not in children with severe dyslexia. Finally, an alteration in phrasal CTS was uncovered in children with dyslexia compared with age-matched controls in babble noise conditions but not in other less challenging listening conditions (non-speech noise or noiseless conditions); no such effect was seen in comparison with reading-level matched controls.Overall, our results confirmed the finding of altered neuronal basis of speech perception in noiseless and babble noise conditions in dyslexia compared with age-matched peers. However, the absence of alteration in comparison with reading-level matched controls demonstrates that such alterations are associated with reduced reading level, suggesting they are merely driven by reduced reading experience rather than a cause of dyslexia. Finally, our result of altered hemispheric lateralization of phrasal CTS in relation with altered RAN abilities in severe dyslexia is in line with a temporal sampling deficit of speech at phrasal rate in dyslexia.
