Transcranial electrical stimulation improves phoneme processing in developmental dyslexia.
- Rufener KS Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany. Electronic address: katharina.rufener@med.ovgu.de.
- Krauel K Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.
- Meyer M University Research Priority Program "Dynamics of Healthy Aging", University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Cognitive Psychology Unit (CPU), University of Klagenfurt, Klagenfurt am Woerthersee, Austria.
- Heinze HJ Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.
- Zaehle T Department of Neurology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany; Center for Behavioral Brain Sciences, Magdeburg, Germany.
- 2019-03-04
Published in:
- Brain stimulation. - 2019
Auditory temporal resolution
Developmental dyslexia
Phoneme processing
Transcranial alternating current stimulation
Transcranial random noise stimulation
Acoustic Stimulation
Adolescent
Auditory Cortex
Auditory Perception
Child
Dyslexia
Female
Humans
Male
Phonetics
Random Allocation
Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation
English
BACKGROUND
About 10% of the western population suffers from a specific disability in the acquisition of reading and writing skills, known as developmental dyslexia (DD). Even though DD starts in childhood it frequently continuous throughout lifetime. Impaired processing of acoustic features at the phonematic scale based on dysfunctional auditory temporal resolution is considered as one core deficit underlying DD. Recently, the efficacy of transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) to modulate auditory temporal resolution and phoneme processing in healthy individuals has been demonstrated.
OBJECTIVE
The present work aims to investigate online effects of tES on phoneme processing in individuals with DD.
METHOD
Using an established phoneme-categorization task, we assessed the immediate behavioral and electrophysiological effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) and transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) over bilateral auditory cortex in children and adolescents with DD (study 1) and adults with DD (study 2) on auditory phoneme processing acuity.
RESULTS
Our data revealed that tACS improved phoneme categorization in children and adolescents with DD, an effect that was paralleled by an increase in evoked brain response patterns representing low-level sensory processing. In the adult sample we replicated these findings and additionally showed a more pronounced impact of tRNS on phoneme-categorization acuity.
CONCLUSION
These results provide compelling evidence for the potential of both tACS and tRNS to increase temporal precision of the auditory system in DD and suggest transcranial electrical stimulation as potential intervention in DD to foster the effect of standard phonology-based training.
About 10% of the western population suffers from a specific disability in the acquisition of reading and writing skills, known as developmental dyslexia (DD). Even though DD starts in childhood it frequently continuous throughout lifetime. Impaired processing of acoustic features at the phonematic scale based on dysfunctional auditory temporal resolution is considered as one core deficit underlying DD. Recently, the efficacy of transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) to modulate auditory temporal resolution and phoneme processing in healthy individuals has been demonstrated.
OBJECTIVE
The present work aims to investigate online effects of tES on phoneme processing in individuals with DD.
METHOD
Using an established phoneme-categorization task, we assessed the immediate behavioral and electrophysiological effects of transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) and transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) over bilateral auditory cortex in children and adolescents with DD (study 1) and adults with DD (study 2) on auditory phoneme processing acuity.
RESULTS
Our data revealed that tACS improved phoneme categorization in children and adolescents with DD, an effect that was paralleled by an increase in evoked brain response patterns representing low-level sensory processing. In the adult sample we replicated these findings and additionally showed a more pronounced impact of tRNS on phoneme-categorization acuity.
CONCLUSION
These results provide compelling evidence for the potential of both tACS and tRNS to increase temporal precision of the auditory system in DD and suggest transcranial electrical stimulation as potential intervention in DD to foster the effect of standard phonology-based training.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- hybrid
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1016/j.brs.2019.02.007
- PMID 30826318
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/47540
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