title: Developmental surface dyslexia is not associated with deficits in the transient visual system.
abstract: Deficits of the transient visual system have been reported in unselected groups of dyslexics. The aim of this study was to examine whether this finding holds when subjects with a specific type of developmental reading disorder (surface dyslexia) are considered. Ten Italian children were examined. They all presented the characteristic markers of surface dyslexia: slow and laborious reading with errors in tasks which cannot be solved with a grapheme-phoneme conversion (i.e., homophones). Contrast sensitivity thresholds to phase-reversal gratings were within normal limits for most subjects both for stimuli presented centrally and in the right parafovea. This indicates that developmental surface dyslexia is not associated with a deficit in the transient system. In contrast, sensitivity to high spatial frequency stationary stimuli was reduced.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Psicologia, Università di Roma La Sapienza, Italy.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Spinelli
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Angelelli
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Luca
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Di Pace
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Judica
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zoccolotti
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005584:Fovea Centralis / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011932:Reading; D012684:Sensory Thresholds / Q000502:physiology; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology