PAGLIARINI, E. . 1, 2 , MAFFIOLI, G. . 1 , MOLTENI, B. 3 , STUCCHI, N. 1 & GUASTI, M. T. 1
1 Department of Psychology, UNIVERSITY OF MILANO-BICOCCA
2 Departament de Tecnologies de la Informació i les Comunicaciones, UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA
3 Developmental Neurology Unit, Fondazione I.R.C.C.S. Istituto Neurologico Carlo Besta
In the present work, we argue that the mechanism at the basis of sensory temporal prediction may be compromised in children and adults with Developmental Dyslexia (DD). A breakdown of this mechanism may be the cause of reading impairments in individuals with DD as well as of subtle language (e.g., Cantiani et al., 2013, 2015; Rispens et al., 2006) and motor (Nicolson & Fawcett, 1990) problems frequently attested at least in some dyslexic individuals.
In Study 1, eighteen adults with DD (mean age 22;3) were tested along with twenty controls in a task requiring entrainment to a given rhythm in a warning-imperative paradigm. DD participants displayed greater synchronization error and were more variable than controls in high predictable stimuli. No group difference was found in the control condition, in which the uncertain timing occurrence of the beat did not permit the extraction of regularities. The findings of Study 1 were replicated in Study 2, which looked at predictive timing abilities in fourteen children with DD (mean age 9;75).
These results suggest that individuals with DD are unable to exploit temporal regularities to efficiently anticipate next sensory events. This impairment is likely to affect both the reading/language and the motor domain.
(Words 200)