Auditory and visual automatic attention deficits in developmental dyslexia.
Several studies have provided evidence for a phonological deficit in developmental dyslexia. However, recent studies provide evidence for a multimodal temporal processing deficit in dyslexia. In fact, dyslexics show both auditory and visual abnormalities, which could result from a more general problem in the perceptual selection of stimuli. Here we report the results of a behavioral study showing that children with dyslexia have both auditory and visual deficits in the automatic orienting of spatial attention. These findings suggest that a deficit of selective spatial attention may distort the development of phonological and orthographic representations that is essential for learning to read.
Facoetti
Andrea
A
Unità di Psicologia e Neuropsicologia Cognitiva, Istituto Scientifico "E Medea" di Bosisio Parini, Lecco, Italy. andreafacoetti@unipd.it
Lorusso
Maria Luisa
ML
Paganoni
Pierluigi
P
Cattaneo
Carmen
C
Galli
Raffaella
R
Umiltà
Carlo
C
Mascetti
Gian Gastone
GG
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000523:psychology*; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D003463:Cues; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014888:Wechsler Scales