Duration perception for visual stimuli is impaired in dyslexia but deficits in visual processing may not be the culprits

Catronas, Dinis; Sousa, J. Eduardo; Batista, Ana Rita; Torres, Nathércia Lima; Mesquita, Ana; Folia, Vasiliki; Silva, Susana

doi:10.1038/s41598-023-40081-0

Cited by 4 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Nevertheless, evidence was restricted to the dyslexic group, as we found after examining interactions ( Figure 4 ). Note that this analysis did not include speech-specific duration perception because extra data was obtained from a previous study of ours ( Catronas et al, 2023 ), in which only this modality of duration perception was assessed. The 26 + 24 participants from Catronas et al (2023) were already classified as controls vs. dyslexics, based on an extensive evaluation of reading profiles, and so we skipped the inspection of reading measures.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Note that this analysis did not include speech-specific duration perception because extra data was obtained from a previous study of ours ( Catronas et al, 2023 ), in which only this modality of duration perception was assessed. The 26 + 24 participants from Catronas et al (2023) were already classified as controls vs. dyslexics, based on an extensive evaluation of reading profiles, and so we skipped the inspection of reading measures. Descriptive values for these measures and the beeps task may be found in Supplementary Table SA1 from Supplementary materials.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Scatterplots for the relation between domain-general duration perception (Beeps) and the three dependent variables (reading measures) in the enlarged sample ( n = 96) considering different subgroups. Data from added controls ( n = 26) and added dyslexics ( n = 24) pertains to Catronas et al (2023) . Main sample refers to the current study ( n = 46).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since our results were in line with the hypothesis that domain-general duration perception predicts the accuracy of pseudoword reading, we tested this association further with an enlarged sample to increase power and see whether evidence could be strengthened. This complementary analysis was conducted by adding data from participants in a previous study of ours ( Catronas et al, 2023 ). The goal of that study was to understand if impairments in visual time perception of dyslexics were secondary to visual problems or not.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To that end, we asked neurotypical adult readers to perform a behavioral interval-comparison task with beep sequences (domain-general duration perception), a pre-attentive VOT discrimination task with EEG recordings (speech-specific), and reading tasks relating to word decoding, pseudoword decoding and reading comprehension. Since our results pointed to an association between domain-general duration perception and pseudoword reading, we did a complementary analysis where we added data from another study of ours ( Catronas et al, 2023 ) to enlarge our sample, increase statistical power, and get more reliable results.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Domain-general but not speech-specific auditory duration perception predicts pseudoword reading in adults

Batista,

Catronas,

Sousa

et al. 2023

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Associations between reading performance and duration perception have been found both for domain-general and speech-specific duration perception. However, research seems limited to children and, critically, the predictive value of the two duration perception modalities has not been compared so far. In the present study we compared the weight of domain-general (comparison of time intervals defined by beeps) vs. speech-specific duration perception (pre-attentive EEG responses to consonants with different durations) as statistical predictors of reading in a sample of 46 neurotypical adults (18–43 years old) with 13 years of schooling on average. Reading included word and pseudoword decoding, as well as reading comprehension. We ran one regression model with domain-general and speech-specific duration perception as predictors for each of the three reading skills. Pseudoword decoding was the only reading skill that was significantly predicted by duration perception, and this happened for domain-general duration perception only. A complementary analysis adding 26 typically developing and 24 dyslexic adults to the main sample (n = 96 in total) showed the same pattern of results in dyslexics, but not in added controls. Our findings strengthen the idea that duration perception is important to phonological encoding and its use in grapheme-to-phoneme conversion, given that only pseudoword decoding was predicted by the interval comparison task. The irrelevance of speech-specific duration perception tones down the possibility that accurately perceiving the length of speech sounds is crucial to skilled reading.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Domain-general but not speech-specific auditory duration perception predicts pseudoword reading in adults

Batista,

Catronas,

Sousa

et al. 2023

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Adults with dyslexia use internalized beat cues less than controls when estimating interval length

Torres,

Batista,

Sousa

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Difficulties in both duration-based and beat-based time perception have been reported in individuals with dyslexia. It is also known that internalised beat cues may aid in the processing of durations. In the present study, we investigated whether the observed challenges in duration processing among individuals with dyslexia stem from their inability to utilise internal beat cues. Participants with vs. without dyslexia were asked to estimate the duration of intervals ranging from 500 ms to 10 s. In one condition (beat cue), participants listened to a sequence of 500 ms beats before the interval, and in the other they were exposed to silence (no beat cue), while their EEG was recorded. Beat cues enhanced the estimation of longer intervals and impaired that of shorter ones. Interestingly, the two groups did not differ in duration estimation performance, but they did differ in their utilisation of beat cues, with dyslexic adults showing less sensitivity to these, whether the impact was negative (cues before shorter intervals) or positive (before longer intervals). Additionally, the entrainment of brain waves to the target frequency (2 Hz) was significantly higher compared to entrainment to a non-target frequency (3.5 Hz), and cross-group differences were null. Our findings suggest that adults with dyslexia may have difficulties either in retaining the beat when it is no longer audible, or in using the internalised beat for duration estimation. Nevertheless, they seem capable of achieving the same estimation accuracy as neurotypical adults, possibly through compensatory strategies.

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Eye Movements in Visual Duration Perception: Disentangling Stimulus from Time in Predecisional Processes

Catronas,

Lima Torres,

Silva

2024

JoVE

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Eye-tracking methods may allow the online monitoring of cognitive processing during visual duration perception tasks, where participants are asked to estimate, discriminate, or compare time intervals defined by visual events like flashing circles.However, and to our knowledge, attempts to validate this possibility have remained inconclusive so far, and results remain focused on offline behavioral decisions made after stimulus appearance. This paper presents an eye-tracking protocol for exploring the cognitive processes preceding behavioral responses in an interval comparison task, where participants viewed two consecutive intervals and had to decide whether it speeded up (first interval longer than second) or slowed down (second interval longer).Our main concern was disentangling oculomotor responses to the visual stimulus itself from correlates of duration related to judgments. To achieve this, we defined three consecutive time windows based on critical events: baseline onset, the onset of the first interval, the onset of the second interval, and the end of the stimulus. We then extracted traditional oculomotor measures for each (number of fixations, pupil size) and focused on time-window-related changes to separate the responses to the visual stimulus from those related to interval comparison per se. As we show in the illustrative results, eye-tracking data showed significant differences that were consistent with behavioral results, raising hypotheses on the mechanisms engaged. This protocol is embryonic and will require many improvements, but it represents an important step forward in the current state of art.

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Duration perception for visual stimuli is impaired in dyslexia but deficits in visual processing may not be the culprits

Cited by 4 publications

References 64 publications

Domain-general but not speech-specific auditory duration perception predicts pseudoword reading in adults

Domain-general but not speech-specific auditory duration perception predicts pseudoword reading in adults

Adults with dyslexia use internalized beat cues less than controls when estimating interval length

Eye Movements in Visual Duration Perception: Disentangling Stimulus from Time in Predecisional Processes

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