PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Abrams, Daniel A.
AU  - Nicol, Trent
AU  - Zecker, Steven G.
AU  - Kraus, Nina
TI  - Auditory Brainstem Timing Predicts Cerebral Asymmetry for Speech
AID  - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2744-06.2006
DP  - 2006 Oct 25
TA  - The Journal of Neuroscience
PG  - 11131--11137
VI  - 26
IP  - 43
4099  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/26/43/11131.short
4100  - http://www.jneurosci.org/content/26/43/11131.full
SO  - J. Neurosci.2006 Oct 25; 26
AB  - The left hemisphere of the human cerebral cortex is dominant for processing rapid acoustic stimuli, including speech, and this specialized activity is preceded by processing in the auditory brainstem. It is not known to what extent the integrity of brainstem encoding of speech impacts patterns of asymmetry at cortex. Here, we demonstrate that the precision of temporal encoding of speech in auditory brainstem predicts cerebral asymmetry for speech sounds measured in a group of children spanning a range of language skills. Results provide strong evidence that timing deficits measured at the auditory brainstem negatively impact rapid acoustic processing by specialized structures of cortex, and demonstrate a delicate relationship between cortical activation patterns and the temporal integrity of cortical input.