Objective

Developmental dyslexia is a reading disorder that features difficulties in perceiving and tracking rhythmic regularities in auditory streams, such as speech and music. Studies on typical healthy participants have shown that power fluctuations of neural oscillations in beta band (15–25 Hz) reflect an essential mechanism for tracking rhythm or entrainment and relate to predictive timing and attentional processes. Here we investigated whether adults with dyslexia have atypical beta power fluctuation.

Methods

The electroencephalographic activities of individuals with dyslexia (n = 13) and typical control participants (n = 13) were measured while they passively listened to an isochronous tone sequence (2 Hz presentation rate). The time–frequency neural activities generated from auditory cortices were analyzed.

Results

The phase of beta power fluctuation at the 2 Hz stimulus presentation rate differed and appeared opposite between individuals with dyslexia and controls.

Conclusions

Atypical beta power fluctuation might reflect deficits in perceiving and tracking auditory rhythm in dyslexia.

Significance

These findings extend our understanding of atypical neural activities for tracking rhythm in dyslexia and could inspire novel methods to objectively measure the benefits of training, and predict potential benefit of auditory rhythmic rehabilitation programs on an individual basis.

中文翻译：

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在阅读困难症时听等时序列时的非典型 beta 功率波动

客观的

发育性阅读障碍是一种阅读障碍，其特点是难以感知和跟踪听觉流（如语音和音乐）中的节奏规律。对典型健康参与者的研究表明，β 波段 (15-25 Hz) 中神经振荡的功率波动反映了跟踪节奏或夹带的基本机制，并与预测时间和注意力过程有关。在这里，我们调查了患有阅读障碍的成年人是否有非典型的 beta 功率波动。

方法

有阅读障碍的个体（n = 13）和典型的对照参与者（n = 13）的脑电图活动被测量，同时他们被动地聆听同步音调序列（2 Hz 呈现率）。分析了听觉皮层产生的时频神经活动。

结果

2 Hz 刺激呈现率下的 beta 功率波动的相位不同，并且在患有阅读障碍的人和对照组之间出现相反的情况。

结论

非典型 β 功率波动可能反映了阅读障碍时感知和跟踪听觉节律的缺陷。

意义

这些发现扩展了我们对跟踪阅读障碍节律的非典型神经活动的理解，并可以激发新方法来客观地衡量训练的好处，并在个人基础上预测听觉节律康复计划的潜在好处。