Selective attention and the “Asynchrony Theory” in native Hebrew-speaking adult dyslexics: Behavioral and ERPs measures

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Menashe, Shay

Affiliations: The Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Mt. Carmel 31905, Haifa, Israel. Tel.: +972 4 828 8093; Fax: +972 4 828 8435; E-mail: menashe_shay@yahoo.com

Abstract: The main aim of the present study was to determine whether adult dyslexic readers demonstrate the “Asynchrony Theory” (Breznitz [Reading Fluency: Synchronization of Processes, Lawrence Erlbaum and Associates, Mahwah, NJ, USA, 2006]) when selective attention is studied. Event-related potentials (ERPs) and behavioral parameters were collected from nonimpaired readers group and dyslexic readers group performing alphabetic and nonalphabetic tasks. The dyslexic readers group was found to demonstrate asynchrony between the auditory and the visual modalities when it came to processing alphabetic stimuli. These findings were found both for behavioral and ERPs parameters. Unlike the dyslexic readers, the nonimpaired readers showed synchronized speed of processing in the auditory and the visual modalities while processing alphabetic stimuli. The current study suggests that established reading is dependent on a synchronization between the auditory and the visual modalities even when it comes to selective attention.

Keywords: Dyslexia, ERPs, selective attention, asynchrony

DOI: 10.3233/JIN-170021

Journal: Journal of Integrative Neuroscience, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 347-363, 2017