Auditory Temporal Processing in Children with Specific Language Impairment Compared to Same-Age Controls

It has been proposed that impaired language development in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) originates from immature auditory temporal integration (ATI), but results are inconsistent. We compared electroencephalographic data from 25 children with SLI aged 6-11 years to 25 typically developing peers. Participants’ neural responses to a 50ms tone presented alone were compared to their responses to two tones separated by silent gaps of 100, 200, 300 or 400ms. Amplitude and latency of P1 and N2 responses to single tones and tone pairs were compared across groups and gap conditions. The groups did not differ in the amplitude or latency of their responses to the second tone in any gap condition. Both groups showed attenuated, but present, responses to the second tone even in the shortest gap condition. Although results did not provide evidence for ATI impairments in SLI, further research using smaller gaps is required.