Auditory Processing are the neurological events after the perception of sound that allow an individual to make sense of what he/she hears. Auditory Processing Disorders (APD) are disabilities whose prevalence and societal burden are unknown. The inability to accurately process auditory signals provides a challenge to learning and language acquisition, especially in crowded or noisy classrooms. There is abundant evidence in the scientific literature that in many cases APD coexists with, and may be the underlying cause of, a learning and/or language disability such as dyslexia, autism or specific language impairment (SLI). However, the association of APD and these heterogeneous language disorders is controversial. And although clinicians have testing procedures that allow for the identification of frank disabilities in auditory processing, the variation in processing skills among normal individuals is not well-known. We are assessing the normal variation using a variety of tests of auditory processing. We are evaluating these skills in twin pairs. By comparison of the performance between identical and fraternal twin pairs we can also estimate the contribution that genes and environment make to these traits.

Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
2007
Total Cost
$36,916
Indirect Cost
Name
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
State
Country
United States
Zip Code
Heijne, Marloes; van der Goot, Jeanet A; Fijten, Helmi et al. (2018) A cross sectional study on Dutch layer farms to investigate the prevalence and potential risk factors for different Chlamydia species. PLoS One 13:e0190774
Morell, Robert J; Brewer, Carmen C; Ge, Dongliang et al. (2007) A twin study of auditory processing indicates that dichotic listening ability is a strongly heritable trait. Hum Genet 122:103-11