Speech Science Forum 11th June - Dr. Hannah J. Stewart

Talk Title - Speech and non-speech cortical networks: Typical development and effect of listening difficulties

Abstract:

The mechanisms underlying listening difficulties are poorly understood. Listening difficulties are frequently reported among children with clinically normal hearing, but with academic, language and attention problems – a condition sometimes referred to as developmental ‘auditory processing disorder’. I will be showing that exploring the cortical networks involved in speech and non-speech listening may hold the key.

To understand speech, we integrate acoustic features through the bottom-up stream of the auditory pathway to the auditory cortex, and linguistic properties through widespread top-down cortical areas of semantic processing and cognition. I will be sharing our results from a large longitudinal study at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital looking at how these cortical areas work together in children with and without listening difficulties.