Abstract
Recent insight into the genetic bases for autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, stuttering, and language disorders suggest that neurogenetic approaches may also reveal at least one etiology of auditory processing disorder (APD). A person with an APD typically has difficulty understanding speech in background noise despite having normal pure-tone hearing sensitivity. The estimated prevalence of APD may be as high as 10% in the pediatric population, yet the causes are unknown and have not been explored by molecular or genetic approaches. The aim of our study was to determine the heritability of frequency and temporal resolution for auditory signals and speech recognition in noise in 96 identical or fraternal twin pairs, aged 6–11 years. Measures of auditory processing (AP) of non-speech sounds included backward masking (temporal resolution), notched noise masking (spectral resolution), pure-tone frequency discrimination (temporal fine structure sensitivity), and nonsense syllable recognition in noise. We provide evidence of significant heritability, ranging from 0.32 to 0.74, for individual measures of these non-speech-based AP skills that are crucial for understanding spoken language. Identification of specific heritable AP traits such as these serve as a basis to pursue the genetic underpinnings of APD by identifying genetic variants associated with common AP disorders in children and adults.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by intramural research funds from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders DC000039 to TBF, DC00046 to DPD, DC000060 to AJG, and DC000064 to CCB, and the Medical Research Council grant number U135070147 to DRM. We are grateful to Harold Sneider and Dorothy Bishop for insightful feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript. We thank Alyssa Baker, William Bologna, Sienna Burke, Tasha Cantelmo, Julie Cohen, Travis Conrad, Maureen D’Antuono, Christina Do, Alyse Firtel, Keithia Harding, Allison Hearn, Keena James, Samantha Kleindienst, Nikki Parker, Fabiola Peredo, Julia Rainsford, Danielle Zion, graduate students in Audiology from University of Maryland, Gallaudet University, Washington University of St Louis, and Vanderbilt University, for their help in administering study tests at the Annual Twins Days Festival. Thanks are extended to Lisa Hunter who provided oversight of participant processing and assisted in ensuring that nothing was overlooked. We are grateful to Barbara Zwiesler for performing the STR genotyping. We appreciate careful review of the manuscript by Lisa Cunningham and Meghan Drummond. We extend our thanks to the twins and their families for their participation in this research and thank Sandy Miller and the entire Annual Twins Days Festival committee for their support of our research efforts.
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Brewer, C., Zalewski, C., King, K. et al. Heritability of non-speech auditory processing skills. Eur J Hum Genet 24, 1137–1144 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2015.277
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ejhg.2015.277
