N1 and P2 components of auditory event-related potentials in children with and without reading disabilities

Objective The effects of within stimulus presentation rate and rise time on basic auditory processing were investigated in children with reading disabilities and typically reading children. Methods Children with reading disabilities (RD; N = 19) and control children (N = 20) were studied using event-related potentials (ERPs). Paired stimuli were used with two different within-pair-intervals (WPI; 10 and 255 ms) and two different rise times (10 and 130 ms). Each stimulus was presented with equal probability and long between-pair inter-stimulus intervals (1–5 s). The study focused on N1 and P2 components. Results The P2 responses to the first tone in the pair showed differences between children with RD and control children. Also, children with RD had larger N1 response than control children to stimuli with short WPI and long rise time. Conclusions These results provide evidence for basic auditory processing abnormalities in children with RD. This processing difference could be related to extraction of stimulus features from sounds or to attentional mechanisms. Significance Our results show support for behavioral findings that children with RD and control children process rise times differently. More than half of children with RD showed atypical auditory processing.