Auditory temporal processing in humans and other animals
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| Pubblicato in: | ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (1997) |
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
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| Accesso online: | Citation/Abstract Full Text - PDF |
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| Abstract: | Previous studies have suggested that left hemispheric specialization observed for speech may actually be due to hemispheric specialization for segmenting and/or integrating information which changes rapidly over time (auditory temporal processing). Such findings suggest that rapid temporal processing should be lateralized to the left hemisphere, regardless of whether the stimuli are verbal or non-verbal. The objective of this dissertation was to bring together animal and human studies to investigate factors that influence cerebral lateralization and auditory processing abilities. Given the inherent differences of the populations examined in this dissertation methodological variations were required. Nevertheless, the nature of the tasks in all four experiments remained the same as they assessed the subjects' abilities for rapid temporal processing. The main experimental findings of this thesis are as follows. First, both human and non-human species exhibit functional left hemisphere specialization, as demonstrated by an ear advantage, for the analysis of non-verbal, rapidly changing acoustic information. Second, lateralization for rapid auditory temporal processing differs as a function of gender, with males exhibiting a greater right ear advantage (left hemisphere specialization) and females exhibiting no ear advantage. Third, in children with language and temporal processing impairments (LI), a higher degree of lateralization was found as compared to normal children for non-verbal auditory temporal processing. This pattern of lateralization for impaired children was no longer evident after a six-week training program aimed at improving temporal processing. Moreover, those children who significantly improved showed that improvement in their left ear. Finally, experimentally induced lesions in an animal model led to analogous temporal processing deficits to those found in individuals with LI. Similar to the LI children, the temporal processing deficits in impaired rats were remediated with auditory training. In sum, these results support the general hypothesis that the basic ability to discriminate temporally complex auditory information underlies lateralization for speech and gender differences. Furthermore, extended training can influence auditory temporal processing. These studies provide insight into mechanisms which may be prerequisites to normal language development. Importantly, the addition of an animal model allows for systematic manipulation of variables which can not easily be controlled in human research. |
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| ISBN: | 9780591387681 |
| Fonte: | ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global |