Immunoglobulin Class Profiles of ABO Antibodies in Saliva and Serum of Healthy Individuals.

Introduction: The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic gave rise to studies investigating the association of ABO blood group with COVID-19 susceptibility. It is hypothesized that ABO antibodies might play a role in neutralizing SARS-CoV-2. However, ABO antibodies were exclusively analyzed in blood samples. Investigation of ABO antibodies in saliva, an easy-to-obtain surrogate for respiratory secretions, may provide novel insights into mucosal immunity crucial in early defense against respiratory pathogens. Methods: In this study, saliva and serum samples from healthy individuals with known blood groups were investigated using a flow cytometric method for separate anti-A/anti-B IgA, IgM, and IgG class antibody detection. Saliva samples were additionally tested using hemagglutination-based neutral and indirect anti-human globulin test gel cards. This method comparison was complemented by dilution experiments with a high-titer anti-A/anti-B WHO standard. Results: In saliva, IgA was the most abundant ABO antibody class, followed by IgM; IgG was detected only in low levels in all non-AB blood types. In serum, IgM was the predominant ABO antibody class in all non-AB blood types, followed by IgA and IgG, the latter mainly detected in group O individuals. Saliva and serum samples of group O individuals yielded the highest variability of ABO-specific antibody levels. Regardless of sample material and blood type, major interindividual differences in ABO antibody reactivities were recorded. Antibody levels correlated moderately between these two body fluids. There were no significant sex and age-group differences in ABO antibody levels in both serum and saliva. WHO standard dilution experiments yielded technique-specific limits of detection, illustrating the inherent differences of immunofluorescence versus agglutination. Conclusion: For the first time, salivary ABO antibodies were investigated by separate detection of the three most relevant antibody classes IgA, IgM, and IgG in a healthy cohort. This study opens new perspectives regarding mucosal ABO antibody class profiles and their potential influence on respiratory infections.

Diagnostic, prognostic and differential-diagnostic relevance of pulmonary haemodynamic parameters during exercise: a systematic review.

BACKGROUND: The cardiopulmonary haemodynamic profile observed during exercise may identify patients with early-stage pulmonary vascular and primary cardiac diseases, and is used clinically to inform prognosis. However, a standardised approach to interpreting haemodynamic parameters is lacking. METHODS: We performed a systematic literature search according to PRISMA guidelines to identify parameters that may be diagnostic for an abnormal haemodynamic response to exercise and offer optimal prognostic and differential-diagnostic value. We performed random-effects meta-analyses of the normal values and report effect sizes as weighted mean±sd. Results of diagnostic and prognostic studies are reported descriptively. RESULTS: We identified 45 eligible studies with a total of 5598 subjects. The mean pulmonary arterial pressure (mPAP)/cardiac output (CO) slope, pulmonary arterial wedge pressure (PAWP)/CO slope and peak cardiac index (or CO) provided the most consistent prognostic haemodynamic parameters during exercise. The best cut-offs for survival and cardiovascular events were a mPAP/CO slope >3 Wood units (WU) and PAWP/CO slope >2 WU. A PAWP/CO slope cut-off >2 WU best differentiated pre- from post-capillary causes of PAP elevation during exercise. Upper limits of normal (defined as mean+2sd) for the mPAP/CO and PAWP/CO slopes were strongly age-dependent and ranged in 30-70-year-old healthy subjects from 1.6 to 3.3 WU and 0.6 to 1.8 WU, respectively. CONCLUSION: An increased mPAP/CO slope during exercise is associated with impaired survival and an independent, prognostically relevant cut-off >3 WU has been validated. A PAWP/CO slope >2 WU may be suitable for the differentiation between pre- and post-capillary causes of PAP increase during exercise.

Transcoding counts: Longitudinal contribution of number writing to arithmetic in different languages.

Number writing involves transcoding from number words (e.g., "thirty-two") to written digit strings (32) and is an important unique predictor of arithmetic. The existing longitudinal evidence about the relation between transcoding and arithmetic is mostly language specific. In languages with number word inversion (e.g., German), the order of tens and units is transposed in spoken number words compared with Arabic numbers. This makes transcoding more challenging than in languages without number word inversion (e.g., English). In the current study, we aimed to understand whether the contribution of number writing to the development of arithmetic is similar in languages with and without number word inversion. German-speaking children (n = 166) and English-speaking children (n = 201) were followed over the first 3 years of primary school. In a series of multiple linear regressions, we tested whether number writing of multi-digit numbers was a significant unique predictor of arithmetic after controlling for well-known non-numerical predictors (nonverbal reasoning and working memory) and numerical predictors (symbolic and nonsymbolic magnitude comparison). Number writing in Grade 1 predicted arithmetic in Grades 1, 2, and 3 over and above the other predictors. Crucially, number writing performance was of comparable importance for arithmetic development in German- and English-speaking children. Our findings extend previous evidence by showing that transcoding predicts the development of arithmetic skills during the first 3 years of primary school in languages with and without number word inversion.

Speaking up about patient safety concerns: view of nursing students.

BACKGROUND: "Speaking up" is considered an important patient safety behaviour. The main idea is to voice patient safety concerns; however, several studies revealed that the organisational culture can be obstructive. In previous studies, we already identified barriers for doctors, nurses and medical students. In the current study, we explore how nursing students use "speaking up" during their internship in an academic teaching hospital. METHODS: Between 2019 and 2020, 212 nursing students were invited to take part in the survey. The validated Speaking Up about Patient Safety Questionnaire (SUPS-Q) was used to assess speaking up behaviours in nursing students. The SUPS-Q consisted of three behaviour related scales (11 items), three culture related scales (11 items), a question regarding barriers to speak up as well as a clinical vignette assessing a hypothetical speaking up situation. RESULTS: In total, 118 nursing students took part in the survey (response rate: 56%). Most of them noticed specific safety concerns, observed errors or rule violations. The vignette was seen as very realistic and harmful to the patient. However, the majority responded that they did not speak up and remained silent. They reported a rather discouraging environment and high levels of resignation towards speaking up. However, more advanced students were less likely to speak up than less advanced students (p = 0.027). Most relevant barriers were fear of negative reaction (64%), reaction not predictable (62%) and ineffectiveness (42%). CONCLUSIONS: Survey results of nursing students imply that speaking-up behaviours and remaining silent are common behaviours and coexist in the same individual. The clinical vignette and barriers to speaking up revealed that a hierarchical system does not support speaking-up behaviours. Organizational development is needed to foster professional teamwork, support attentive listening, encourage critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

Lewis and ABO histo-blood types and the secretor status of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 implicate a role for ABO antibodies in susceptibility to infection with SARS-CoV-2.

BACKGROUND: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) targets the respiratory and gastric epithelium, causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Tissue antigen expression variations influence host susceptibility to many infections. This study aimed to investigate the closely linked Lewis (FUT3) and ABO histo-blood types, including secretor (FUT2) status, to infections with SARS-CoV-2 and the corresponding severity of COVID-19. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Patients (Caucasians, n = 338) were genotyped for ABO, FUT3, and FUT2, and compared to a reference population of blood donors (n = 250,298). The association between blood types and severity of COVID-19 was addressed by dividing patients into four categories: hospitalized individuals in general wards, patients admitted to the intensive care unit with and without intubation, and deceased patients. Comorbidities were considered in subsequent analyses. RESULTS: Patients with blood type Lewis (a-b-) or O were significantly less likely to be hospitalized (odds ratio [OR] 0.669, confidence interval [CI] 0.446-0.971, OR 0.710, CI 0.556-0.900, respectively), while type AB was significantly more prevalent in the patient cohort (OR 1.519, CI 1.014-2.203). The proportions of secretors/nonsecretors, and Lewis a+ or Lewis b+ types were consistent between patients and controls. The analyzed blood groups were not associated with the clinical outcome as defined. DISCUSSION: Blood types Lewis (a-b-) and O were found to be protective factors, whereas the group AB is suggested to be a risk factor for COVID-19. The antigens investigated may not be prognostic for disease severity, but a role for ABO isoagglutinins in SARS-CoV-2 infections is strongly suggested.

White matter deficits correlate with visual motion perception impairments in dyslexic carriers of the DCDC2 genetic risk variant.

Motion perception deficits in dyslexia show a large intersubjective variability, partly reflecting genetic factors influencing brain architecture development. In previous work, we have demonstrated that dyslexic carriers of a mutation of the DCDC2 gene have a very strong impairment in motion perception. In the present study, we investigated structural white matter alterations associated with the poor motion perception in a cohort of twenty dyslexics with a subgroup carrying the DCDC2 gene deletion (DCDC2d+) and a subgroup without the risk variant (DCDC2d-). We observed significant deficits in motion contrast sensitivity and in motion direction discrimination accuracy at high contrast, stronger in the DCDC2d+ group. Both motion perception impairments correlated significantly with the fractional anisotropy in posterior ventral and dorsal tracts, including early visual pathways both along the optic radiation and in proximity of occipital cortex, MT and VWFA. However, the DCDC2d+ group showed stronger correlations between FA and motion perception impairments than the DCDC2d- group in early visual white matter bundles, including the optic radiations, and in ventral pathways located in the left inferior temporal cortex. Our results suggest that the DCDC2d+ group experiences higher vulnerability in visual motion processing even at early stages of visual analysis, which might represent a specific feature associated with the genotype and provide further neurobiological support to the visual-motion deficit account of dyslexia in a specific subpopulation.

Twenty-four or four-and-twenty: Language modulates cross-modal matching for multidigit numbers in children and adults.

Does number-word structure have a long-lasting impact on transcoding? Contrary to English, German number words comprise decade-unit inversion (e.g., vierundzwanzig is literally translated as four-and-twenty). To investigate the mental representation of numbers, we tested the effect of visual and linguistic-morphological characteristics on the development of verbal-visual transcoding. In a longitudinal cross-linguistic design, response times (RTs) in a number-matching experiment were analyzed in Grade 2 (119 German-speaking and 179 English-speaking children) and in Grade 3 (131 German-speaking and 160 English-speaking children). To test for long-term effects, the same experiment was given to 38 German-speaking and 42 English-speaking adults. Participants needed to decide whether a spoken number matched a subsequent visual Arabic number. Systematic variation of digits in the nonmatching distractors allowed comparison of three different transcoding accounts (lexicalization, visual, and linguistic-morphological). German speakers were generally slower in rejecting inverted number distractors than English speakers. Across age groups, German speakers were more distracted by Arabic numbers that included the correct unit digit, whereas English speakers showed stronger distraction when the correct decade digit was included. These RT patterns reflect differences in number-word morphology. The individual cost of rejecting an inverted distractor (inversion effect) predicted arithmetic skills in German-speaking second-graders only. The moderate relationship between the efficiency to identify a matching number and arithmetic performance could be observed cross-linguistically in all age groups but was not significant in German-speaking adults. Thus, findings provide consistent evidence of a persistent impact of number-word structure on number processing, whereas the relationship with arithmetic performance was particularly pronounced in young children.

Stability of Deficits in Reading Fluency and/or Spelling.

Deficits in reading fluency and in spelling can dissociate during development, resulting in groups with reading deficit only (RD), spelling deficit only (SD) and combined reading and spelling deficit (RSD). The current study investigated the one-to-two-year longitudinal stability of these subgroups in 167 German-speaking children. Reading fluency deficits (irrespective of spelling skills) were stable over time, while spelling deficits were stable in the RSD-group but not in the SD-group. Lower stability in the SD-group resulted from the fact that many children improved their spelling skills over time. Improvement in spelling was associated with good performance in phoneme awareness together with intact RAN and decoding skills.

White matter alterations and tract lateralization in children with dyslexia and isolated spelling deficits.

The present study investigated whether children with a typical dyslexia profile and children with isolated spelling deficits show a distinct pattern of white matter alteration compared with typically developing peers. Relevant studies on the topic are scarce, rely on small samples, and often suffer from the limitations of conventional tensor-based methods. The present Constrained Spherical Deconvolution study includes 27 children with typical reading and spelling skills, 21 children with dyslexia and 21 children with isolated spelling deficits. Group differences along major white matter tracts were quantified utilizing the Automated Fiber Quantification software and a lateralization index was calculated in order to investigate the structural asymmetry of the tracts. The two deficit groups mostly displayed different patterns of white matter alterations, located in the bilateral inferior longitudinal fasciculi, right superior longitudinal fasciculus, and cingulum for the group with dyslexia and in the left arcuate fasciculus for the group with isolated spelling deficits. The two deficit groups differed also with respect to structural asymmetry. Children with dyslexia did not show the typical leftward asymmetry of the arcuate fasciculus, whereas the group with isolated spelling deficits showed absent rightward asymmetry of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus. This study adds evidence to the notion that different profiles of combined or isolated reading and spelling deficits are associated with different neural signatures.

Reading strategies of good and poor readers of German with different spelling abilities.

Reading and spelling abilities are thought to be highly correlated during development, and orthographic knowledge is assumed to underpin both literacy skills. Interestingly, recent studies showed that reading and spelling skills can also dissociate. The current study investigated whether spelling skills (indicating orthographic knowledge) are associated with the application of orthographic strategies during reading. We examined eye movements of 137 third- and fourth-graders who were either good or poor readers with or without a spelling deficit: 43 children with typical reading and spelling skills, 28 with isolated spelling deficits, 28 with isolated reading deficits, and 38 with combined reading and spelling deficits. Although we expected to find reduced reliance on orthographic reading processes among poor spellers, this was evident for the group with combined deficits only. Both isolated deficit groups applied sublexical and lexical processes in a similar amount to typically developing children. Our findings suggest that reading rests on orthographic strategies even if lexical representations are poor as indicated by a deficit in spelling skills. Findings also show that dysfluent reading does not result only from overreliance on decoding.

Lexical Reading in Dysfluent Readers of German.

Dyslexia in consistent orthographies like German is characterized by dysfluent reading, which is often assumed to result from failure to build up an orthographic lexicon and overreliance on decoding. However, earlier evidence indicates effects of lexical processing at least in some German dyslexic readers. We investigated variations in reading style in an eye-tracking paradigm with German dysfluent 3rd and 4th graders. Twenty-six TypFix-readers (fixation counts within the range of 47 age-matched typical readers) were compared with 42 HighFix-readers (increased fixation counts). Both groups showed lexical access: Words were read more efficiently than nonwords and pseudohomophones. TypFix-readers showed stronger reliance on lexical reading than HighFix-readers (smaller length effects for number of fixations and total reading time, stronger lexicality effects for gaze duration, stronger word-pseudohomophone effects for mean saccade amplitude). We conclude that in both groups, sublexical and lexical reading processes were impaired due to inefficient visual-verbal integration.

Pediatric vascular anomalies in Austria. Where are we at? A survey among primary care pediatricians.

Introduction: Vascular anomalies (VAs) are rare conditions and affected patients often experience a difficult patient journey. Timely diagnosis is only possible if primary caregivers are aware of the anomalies and are connected with dedicated specialists. Aim of our survey was to investigate the knowledge about diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities for children with VAs, and the existing networking among primary pediatric caregivers in Austria. Methods: Primary care pediatricians in Austria were invited to complete an online questionnaire consisting of 28 questions focusing on pediatric VAs. Results: Out of 373 invited pediatricians 93 (25%) returned the questionnaires, 86 of which were complete. Most physicians (39/93 42%) answered that they see between 15 and 30 patients with infantile hemangiomas per year. Vascular malformations are rarely treated in the primary care setting; most primary care pediatricians (58/86, 67%) reported that they currently treat fewer than 5 patients with such type of VAs. There was unequivocal agreement among the participants (84/86, 98%) on the need to establish a network of specialists and a registry dedicated to pediatric VAs. Conclusions: This survey represents the first study shedding light on the awareness of VAs among Austrian pediatricians and can serve as a basis for future investigations and advances in the management of these conditions in Austria and other countries with a similar healthcare setting.

Lower Levels of ABO Anti-A and Anti-B of IgM, IgG and IgA Isotypes in the Serum but Not the Saliva of COVID-19 Convalescents.

Individuals with ABO type O, naturally possessing anti-A and anti-B antibodies in their serum, are underrepresented among patients infected with SARS-CoV-2 compared with healthy controls. The ABO antibodies might play a role in the viral transmission. Therefore, we aimed to quantify anti-A/anti-B, including their subclasses IgM, IgG and IgA, in the serum and saliva of Caucasians (n = 187) after mild COVID-19 to compare them with individuals who had never been infected with SARS-CoV-2. Two samples were collected within two months after the diagnosis (median days: 44) and two months later. ABO antibodies were determined by flow cytometry. Additionally, total IgA in saliva and antibodies specific to SARS-CoV-2 were tested by ELISA. COVID-19 convalescents had significantly lower levels of anti-A/anti-B IgM, IgG and IgA in their serum than control subjects (p < 0.001). Interestingly, no significant differences were observed in saliva. ABO antibody levels remained stable over the period considered. No relation of ABO to the level of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies was observed. Total IgA was lower in convalescents than in controls (p = 0.038). Whereas ABO antibodies in the saliva may not contribute to the pathogenesis of COVID-19, individual pre-existing high serum concentrations of anti-A/anti-B may have a protective effect against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Common and distinct predictors of non-symbolic and symbolic ordinal number processing across the early primary school years.

What are the cognitive mechanisms supporting non-symbolic and symbolic order processing? Preliminary evidence suggests that non-symbolic and symbolic order processing are partly distinct constructs. The precise mechanisms supporting these skills, however, are still unclear. Moreover, predictive patterns may undergo dynamic developmental changes during the first years of formal schooling. This study investigates the contribution of theoretically relevant constructs (non-symbolic and symbolic magnitude comparison, counting and storage and manipulation components of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory) to performance and developmental change in non-symbolic and symbolic numerical order processing. We followed 157 children longitudinally from Grade 1 to 3. In the order judgement tasks, children decided whether or not triplets of dots or digits were arranged in numerically ascending order. Non-symbolic magnitude comparison and visuo-spatial manipulation were significant predictors of initial performance in both non-symbolic and symbolic ordering. In line with our expectations, counting skills contributed additional variance to the prediction of symbolic, but not of non-symbolic ordering. Developmental change in ordering performance from Grade 1 to 2 was predicted by symbolic comparison skills and visuo-spatial manipulation. None of the predictors explained variance in developmental change from Grade 2 to 3. Taken together, the present results provide robust evidence for a general involvement of pair-wise magnitude comparison and visuo-spatial manipulation in numerical ordering, irrespective of the number format. Importantly, counting-based mechanisms appear to be a unique predictor of symbolic ordering. We thus conclude that there is only a partial overlap of the cognitive mechanisms underlying non-symbolic and symbolic order processing.

Neural patterns of word processing differ in children with dyslexia and isolated spelling deficit.

There is an ongoing debate concerning the extent to which deficits in reading and spelling share cognitive components and whether they rely, in a similar fashion, on sublexical and lexical pathways of word processing. The present study investigates whether the neural substrates of word processing differ in children with various patterns of reading and spelling deficits. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we compared written and auditory processing in three groups of 9-13-year olds (N = 104): (1) with age-adequate reading and spelling skills; (2) with reading and spelling deficits (i.e., dyslexia); (3) with isolated spelling deficits but without reading deficits. In visual word processing, both deficit groups showed hypoactivations in the posterior superior temporal cortex compared to typical readers and spellers. Only children with dyslexia exhibited hypoactivations in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex compared to the two groups of typical readers. This is the result of an atypical pattern of higher activity in the occipito-temporal cortex for non-linguistic visual stimuli than for words, indicating lower selectivity. The print-speech convergence was reduced in the two deficit groups. Impairments in lexico-orthographic regions in a reading-based task were associated primarily with reading deficits, whereas alterations in the sublexical word processing route could be considered common for both reading and spelling deficits. These findings highlight the partly distinct alterations of the language network related to reading and spelling deficits.

Cross-Format Integration of Auditory Number Words and Visual-Arabic Digits: An ERP Study.

Converting visual-Arabic digits to auditory number words and vice versa is seemingly effortless for adults. However, it is still unclear whether this process takes place automatically and whether accessing the underlying magnitude representation is necessary during this process. In two event-related potential (ERP) experiments, adults were presented with identical (e.g., "one" and 1) or non-identical (e.g., "one" and 9) number pairs, either unimodally (two visual-Arabic digits) or cross-format (an auditory number word and a visual-Arabic digit). In Experiment 1 (N=17), active task demands required numerical judgments, whereas this was not the case in Experiment 2 (N=19). We found pronounced early ERP markers of numerical identity unimodally in both experiments. In the cross-format conditions, however, we only observed late neural correlates of identity and only if the task required semantic number processing (Experiment 1). These findings suggest that unimodal pairs of digits are automatically integrated, whereas cross-format integration of numerical information occurs more slowly and involves semantic access.

Implementation status of morbidity and mortality conferences in Austrian hospitals-A cross-sectional national survey study.

INTRODUCTION: Morbidity and mortality conferences (M&MCs) are an instrument for learning from past complications, unexpected follow-ups and deaths in hospitals and are important for improving patient safety. However, there are currently no quantitative data on the implementation of M&MCs in Austria. The aim of the study was to determine the status quo of the M&MCs in Austria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A national cross-sectional study was conducted by means of a survey of 982 chief physicians of surgical disciplines, internal medicine, anesthesiology, intensive care, gynecology/obstetrics and pediatrics. The questionnaire focused on overall goals, structure and procedures of hospital M&MCs. RESULTS: Of the 982 contacted chief physicians, 314 (32.0%) completed the survey. Almost two thirds of the respondents, i.e. 203 (64.7%), had already implemented M&MCs. Of the 111 chief physicians who had not yet introduced M&MCs, 62 (55.9%) were interested in introducing such conferences in the future. Of the 203 respondents that had implemented M&MCs, 100 stated that their M&MC could be improved. They reported issues with "shame and blame" culture, hierarchical structures, too little knowledge about the capability of M&MC and, in particular, time constraints. Overall, the participating chief physicians showed that they are striving to improve their existing M&MCs. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION: While we found a relatively high number of already implemented M&MCs we also identified a large heterogeneity in the format of the M&MCs. A highly structured M&MC including guidelines, checklists or templates does not only considerably improve its outcome but can also alleviate the main limiting factor which is the lack of time.

Visual attention span performance in German-speaking children with differential reading and spelling profiles: No evidence of group differences.

An impairment in the visual attention span (VAS) has been suggested to hamper reading performance of individuals with dyslexia. It is not clear, however, if the very nature of the deficit is visual or verbal and, importantly, if it affects spelling skills as well. The current study investigated VAS by means of forced choice tasks with letters and symbols in a sample of third and fourth graders with age-adequate reading and spelling skills (n = 43), a typical dyslexia profile with combined reading and spelling deficits (n = 26) and isolated spelling deficits (n = 32). The task was devised to contain low phonological short-term memory load and to overcome the limitations of oral reports. Notably, eye-movements were monitored to control that children fixated the center of the display when stimuli were presented. Results yielded no main effect of group as well as no group-related interactions, thus showing that children with dyslexia and isolated spelling deficits did not manifest a VAS deficit for letters or symbols once certain methodological aspects were controlled for. The present results could not replicate previous evidence for the involvement of VAS in reading and dyslexia.

Deficient Letter-Speech Sound Integration Is Associated With Deficits in Reading but Not Spelling.

Efficient and automatic integration of letters and speech sounds is assumed to enable fluent word recognition and may in turn also underlie the build-up of high-quality orthographic representations, which are relevant for accurate spelling. While previous research showed that developmental dyslexia is associated with deficient letter-speech sound integration, these studies did not differentiate between subcomponents of literacy skills. In order to investigate whether deficient letter-speech sound integration is associated with deficits in reading and/or spelling, three groups of third graders were recruited: (1) children with combined deficits in reading and spelling (RSD, N = 10); (2) children with isolated spelling deficit (ISD, N = 17); and (3) typically developing children (TD, N = 21). We assessed the neural correlates (EEG) of letter-speech sound integration using a Stroop-like interference paradigm: participants had to decide whether two visually presented letters look identical. In case of non-identical letter pairs, conflict items were the same letter in lower and upper case (e.g., "T t"), while non-conflict items were different letters (e.g., "T k"). In terms of behavioral results, each of the three groups exhibited a comparable amount of conflict-related reaction time (RT) increase, which may be a sign for no general inhibitory deficits. Event-related potentials (ERPs), on the other hand, revealed group-based differences: the amplitudes of the centro-parietal conflict slow potential (cSP) were increased for conflicting items in typical readers as well as the ISD group. Preliminary results suggest that this effect was missing for children with RSD. The results suggest that deficits in automatized letter-speech sound associations are associated with reading deficit, but no impairment was observed in spelling deficit.

Print-, sublexical and lexical processing in children with reading and/or spelling deficits: An ERP study.

Findings on the neurophysiological correlates of developmental dyslexia are mixed, due to the differential conceptualization of the impairment. Studies differ on whether participants with developmental dyslexia are recruited based on reading skills only or reading as well as spelling skills. The current study contrasts the contribution of impaired reading and spelling to ERP correlates of print sensitivity, lexico-semantic access and sensitivity to orthographic regularities. Four groups of children were recruited: isolated reading deficit, isolated spelling deficit, combined reading and spelling deficit, and typically developing. Their neural correlates (EEG) of word, pseudohomophone, and pseudoword reading, as well as false font processing were compared. 1) All groups showed higher N1 amplitudes to letters than to false fonts. 2) Good spellers exhibited more negative N400 amplitudes for meaningless (pseudowords) than for meaningful stimuli (words and pseudohomophones). This effect was not observed in poor spellers. 3) Good readers showed sensitivity to orthographic regularities in a later time window (700-900 ms), whereas this was not the case for poor readers. 1) Print sensitivity is not affected by reading and/or spelling deficit in German-speaking 3rd graders. 2) Spelling deficits are associated with a reduced orthographic lexicon, 3) Reading deficits are associated with atypical use of sublexical information. As this effect was observed after lexico-semantic access, the results are discussed in terms of a possible orthographic reanalysis hypothesis.