Atypical long-latency auditory event-related potentials in a subset of children with specific language impairment.

It has been proposed that specific language impairment (SLI) is the consequence of low-level abnormalities in auditory perception. However, studies of long-latency auditory ERPs in children with SLI have generated inconsistent findings. A possible reason for this inconsistency is the heterogeneity of SLI.

Maturation of the long-latency auditory ERP: step function changes at start and end of adolescence.

The auditory event-related potential (ERP) is obtained by averaging electrical impulses recorded from the scalp in response to repeated stimuli. Previous work has shown large differences between children, adolescents and adults in the late auditory ERP, raising the possibility that analysis of waveform shape might be useful as an index of brain maturity. We reanalysed auditory ERPs from samples previously described by Albrecht, von Suchodoletz and Uwer (2000) and Uwer, Albrecht and von Suchodoletz (2002), using the intraclass correlation (ICC) as a global measure of similarity of an individual's waveform to a grand average comparison waveform for each age band.

Deficits in gain of smooth pursuit eye movements in schizophrenia and affective disorder patients and their unaffected relatives.

Objective: Disturbance of smooth pursuit eye movements has been discussed as marking a putative endophenotype closely associated with the genetic basis of schizophrenia. Previous studies are not conclusive in regard to the specificity of this marker. Therefore, oculomotor pursuit was evaluated in unaffected family members of index probands diagnosed as having either schizophrenia or affective disorders.

Automatic processing of tones and speech stimuli in children with specific language impairment.

It is well known from behavioural experiments that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have difficulties discriminating consonant-vowel (CV) syllables such as /ba/, /da/, and /ga/. Mismatch negativity (MMN) is an auditory event-related potential component that represents the outcome of an automatic comparison process. It could, therefore, be a promising tool for assessing central auditory processing deficits for speech and non-speech stimuli in children with SLI.