Auditory scene analysis in dyslexics

It has been argued that dyslexics suffer from temporal sensory processing d eficits which affect their ability to discriminate speech in quiet environm ents. The impact of auditory deficits on non-language aspects of perception , however, is poorly understood. In almost every natural-listening environm ent, one must constantly construct scenes of the auditory world by grouping and analyzing sounds generated by multiple sources. We investigated whethe r dyslexics have difficulties grouping sounds. The results demonstrate that dyslexics have an impairment in grouping auditory objects that depends bot h on the sounds' frequency and presentation rate (i.e. the spearo-temporal context of the sound). We conclude that dyslexics have difficulty construct ing scenes of the auditory world, and that these deficits tan contribute to learning impairments. NeuroReport 11:1967-1971 (C) 2000 Lippincott William s & Wilkins.