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Updated: Jul 12, 2026
Quantitative Assessment of Cortical Auditory-tactile Processing in Children with Disabilities
Published on: January 29, 2014
N1 and P2 components of auditory event-related potentials in children with and without reading disabilities
J A Hämäläinen1, P H T Leppänen, T K Guttorm
1Department of Psychology, University of Jyväskylä, PO Box 35, Agora, 40014 Jyväskylä, Finland. jarmo.hamalainen@psyka.jyu.fi
Insights
Children with reading disabilities exhibit distinct auditory processing patterns compared to typical readers, particularly in how they perceive sound features. These differences suggest potential underlying issues in auditory processing that may contribute to reading challenges.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Psychology
- Auditory Neuroscience
Background:
- Reading disabilities (RD) are associated with various neurodevelopmental differences.
- Auditory processing is crucial for language acquisition and reading development.
- Previous research suggests potential auditory processing deficits in individuals with RD.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of stimulus presentation rate and rise time on basic auditory processing in children with RD and typically reading children.
- To identify electrophysiological differences in auditory processing between these two groups.
Main Methods:
- Event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 19 children with RD and 20 control children.
- Paired auditory stimuli with varying within-pair intervals (WPI) and rise times were presented.
- Analysis focused on the N1 and P2 ERP components.
Main Results:
- Significant differences in P2 responses to the initial tone were observed between children with RD and controls.
- Children with RD showed larger N1 responses than controls for stimuli with short WPI and long rise times.
- Over half of the children with RD displayed atypical auditory processing patterns.
Conclusions:
- The findings provide evidence for basic auditory processing abnormalities in children with RD.
- These auditory processing differences may relate to difficulties in extracting sound features or in attentional mechanisms.
- Results support behavioral observations of differing rise time processing between groups.
Objective:
The effects of within stimulus presentation rate and rise time on basic auditory processing were investigated in children with reading disabilities and typically reading children.
Methods:
Children with reading disabilities (RD; N=19) and control children (N=20) were studied using event-related potentials (ERPs). Paired stimuli were used with two different within-pair-intervals (WPI; 10 and 255 ms) and two different rise times (10 and 130 ms). Each stimulus was presented with equal probability and long between-pair inter-stimulus intervals (1-5s). The study focused on N1 and P2 components.
Results:
The P2 responses to the first tone in the pair showed differences between children with RD and control children. Also, children with RD had larger N1 response than control children to stimuli with short WPI and long rise time.
Conclusions:
These results provide evidence for basic auditory processing abnormalities in children with RD. This processing difference could be related to extraction of stimulus features from sounds or to attentional mechanisms.
Significance:
Our results show support for behavioral findings that children with RD and control children process rise times differently. More than half of children with RD showed atypical auditory processing.
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