Neurometrics does not detect 'pure' dyslexics

Thirty-eight severely dyslexic boys and 38 good readers were evaluated with neurometrics, a diagnostic procedure based on the application of numerical taxonomy to EEG spectra obtained during resting conditions, supplemented by selected evoked potential features. This procedure generates deviance scores for the EEG spectra by comparing each individual's values to those obtained from a normative population and has been reported to discriminate learning disabled children from normal controls (Ahn et al. 1980). In the present study, all subjects, dyslexic and control, passed stringent screening to assure normal intellectual, neurological, sensory and emotional status. The false positive rate obtained in our control group was comparable to that reported earlier. However, none of the deviance scores significantly discriminated dyslexics from controls; most subjects from both groups were classified as normal. Severe dyslexia per se is thus not associated with the specific neurometric abnormalities reported previously in more heterogeneous learning disabled populations.