TY - JOUR
T1 - Auditory sensory memory span for duration is severely curtailed in females with Rett syndrome
AU - Brima, Tufikameni
AU - Molholm, Sophie
AU - Molloy, Ciara J.
AU - Sysoeva, Olga V.
AU - Nicholas, Eric
AU - Djukic, Aleksandra
AU - Freedman, Edward G.
AU - Foxe, John J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by a grant from the U.S. National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD R21 DC012447 to JJF and AD) and from The Rett Syndrome Research Trust (to JJF and SM). Work by OS was supported by a Fulbright Fellowship. The authors acknowledge the participation of Mr. Douwe Horsthuis and Mr. Emmett Foxe during the data collection phase of this project. We also thank the volunteers and their families, who graciously gave of their time to allow for the successful completion of this study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Rett syndrome (RTT), a rare neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene, is typified by profound cognitive impairment and severe language impairment, rendering it very difficult to accurately measure auditory processing capabilities behaviorally in this population. Here we leverage the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the event-related potential to measure the ability of RTT patients to decode and store occasional duration deviations in a stream of auditory stimuli. Sensory memory for duration, crucial for speech comprehension, has not been studied in RTT. High-density electroencephalography was successfully recorded in 18 females with RTT and 27 age-matched typically developing (TD) controls (aged 6–22 years). Data from seven RTT and three TD participants were excluded for excessive noise. Stimuli were 1 kHz tones with a standard duration of 100 ms and deviant duration of 180 ms. To assess the sustainability of sensory memory, stimulus presentation rate was varied with stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 450, 900, and 1800 ms. MMNs with maximum negativity over fronto-central scalp and a latency of 220–230 ms were clearly evident for each presentation rate in the TD group, but only for the shortest SOA in the RTT group. Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a significant group by SOA interaction. MMN amplitude correlated with age in the TD group only. MMN amplitude was not correlated with the Rett Syndrome Severity Scale. This study indicates that while RTT patients can decode deviations in auditory duration, the span of this sensory memory system is severely foreshortened, with likely implications for speech decoding abilities.
AB - Rett syndrome (RTT), a rare neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the MECP2 gene, is typified by profound cognitive impairment and severe language impairment, rendering it very difficult to accurately measure auditory processing capabilities behaviorally in this population. Here we leverage the mismatch negativity (MMN) component of the event-related potential to measure the ability of RTT patients to decode and store occasional duration deviations in a stream of auditory stimuli. Sensory memory for duration, crucial for speech comprehension, has not been studied in RTT. High-density electroencephalography was successfully recorded in 18 females with RTT and 27 age-matched typically developing (TD) controls (aged 6–22 years). Data from seven RTT and three TD participants were excluded for excessive noise. Stimuli were 1 kHz tones with a standard duration of 100 ms and deviant duration of 180 ms. To assess the sustainability of sensory memory, stimulus presentation rate was varied with stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) of 450, 900, and 1800 ms. MMNs with maximum negativity over fronto-central scalp and a latency of 220–230 ms were clearly evident for each presentation rate in the TD group, but only for the shortest SOA in the RTT group. Repeated-measures ANOVA revealed a significant group by SOA interaction. MMN amplitude correlated with age in the TD group only. MMN amplitude was not correlated with the Rett Syndrome Severity Scale. This study indicates that while RTT patients can decode deviations in auditory duration, the span of this sensory memory system is severely foreshortened, with likely implications for speech decoding abilities.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41398-019-0463-0
DO - 10.1038/s41398-019-0463-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 30967526
AN - SCOPUS:85064213805
SN - 2158-3188
VL - 9
JO - Translational psychiatry
JF - Translational psychiatry
IS - 1
M1 - 130
ER -
