Dyslexia may result from impairment of a different
linguistic system than previously thought, according to research
published Sept. 19 in the open access journal PLOS ONE.
Speech perception engages at least two linguistic systems: the
phonetic system, which extracts discrete sound units from acoustic
input, and the phonological system, which combines these units to form
individual words.
Previously, researchers generally believed that
dyslexia was caused by phonological impairment, but results from the
current study, led by Iris Berent of Northeastern University in Boston,
suggest that the phonetic system may actually be the cause.
"Our findings confirm that dyslexia indeed compromises the language
system, but the locus of the deficit is in the phonetic, not the
phonological system, as had been previously assumed," says Berent.
