Linguistic lateralization in adolescents with Down syndrome revealed by a dichotic monitoring test.
Linguistic lateralization in 10 adolescents with Down syndrome (average age: 15.7 years), 15 adolescents with intellectual disabilities of unknown etiology (average age: 17.8 years), 2 groups of children without disabilities (11 children, average age: 4.7 years; 10 children, average age: 8.5 years), and 14 adolescents without disabilities (average age: 18.7 years) was examined, using a dichotic monitoring test (DMT). Different Japanese words with 2 consonant-vowel syllables were presented to each ear simultaneously. Participants pressed a button when they heard the target word. The younger children without disabilities and the adolescents with intellectual disabilities exhibited a right-ear advantage, whereas the adolescents with Down syndrome showed the reverse pattern, i.e., a left-ear advantage. These results suggest that there is atypical linguistic lateralization in adolescents with Down syndrome.
Shoji
Hiroaki
H
Laboratory of Physiology, Faculty of Education, Ibaraki University, 2-1-1 Bunkyo, Mito 310-8512, Japan.
Koizumi
Natsuko
N
Ozaki
Hisaki
H
D000293:Adolescent; D001307:Auditory Perception; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004007:Dichotic Listening Tests; D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D010700:Phonetics; D013063:Speech Discrimination Tests; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult