Elsabbagh, Mayada and Cohen, H. and Cohen, M. and Rosen, S. and Karmiloff-Smith, Annette (2011) Severity of hyperacusis predicts individual differences in speech perception in Williams Syndrome. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research 55 (6), pp. 563-571. ISSN 0964-2633.
Abstract
Background  Williams Syndrome (WS) is a neurodevelopmental disorder of genetic origin, characterised by relative proficiency in language in the face of serious impairment in several other domains. Individuals with WS display an unusual sensitivity to noise, known as hyperacusis. Methods  In this study, we examined the extent to which hyperacusis interferes with the perception of speech in children and adults with WS. Participants were required to discriminate words which differed in one consonant of a cluster when these contrasts were embedded in a background of noise. Results  Although the introduction of noise interfered with performance on a consonant cluster discrimination task equally in the WS and control groups, the severity of hyperacusis significantly predicted individual variability in speech perception within the WS group. Conclusions  These results suggest that alterations in sensitivity to input mediate atypical pathways for language development in WS, where hyperacusis exerts an important influence together with other non-auditory factors.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| School: | Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science > School of Psychological Sciences |
| Research Centres and Institutes: | Brain and Cognitive Development, Centre for (CBCD) |
| Depositing User: | Administrator |
| Date Deposited: | 23 May 2011 09:54 |
| Last Modified: | 02 Aug 2023 16:54 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/3333 |
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