Dyslexia: A Failure in Attaining Expert-Level Reading Due to Poor Formation of Auditory Predictions

Abstract

In this chapter, we present evidence that alters the way Dyslexia is typically viewed and assessed. Based on accumulating findings obtained from behavioral assessments, computational modeling, imaging and ERP studies, we propose that Dyslexia results from a failure in acquiring a specific (reading and linguistic) skill that relies heavily on familiarity with stimuli distributions characterized by temporal regularities in a specific time window. Dyslexia is naturally associated with language related impairments, since learning temporal regularities is crucial for acquiring linguistic skills, but not confined to them. Studying Dyslexics’ basic auditory processing from this perspective reveals specific and robust deficits in benefiting from simple temporal consistencies, which are associated with a reduced ability to accumulate stimuli statistics across time windows of > 2–3 s. Importantly, similar impairments are demonstrated in the visual modality, supporting the cross-modal nature of the core deficit. Collectively, our findings show that Dyslexics fail to achieve expert level performance in variety of tasks, including reading, due to deficient accumulation of summary statistics, which impedes the formation of reliable predictions, which in turn facilitate switching performance to rely on efficient processing strategies.