Recognizing voices harder for people with dyslexia

[xchrom]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_MED_HEALTHBEAT_DYSLEXIA?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-08-01-14-19-05

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Pick up the phone and hear, "Hey, what's up?" Chances are, those few words are enough to recognize who's speaking - perhaps unless you have dyslexia.

In a surprise discovery, researchers found adults with that reading disorder also have a hard time recognizing voices.

The work isn't just a curiosity. It fits with research to uncover the building blocks of literacy and how they can go wrong. The eventual goal: To spot at-risk youngsters even before they open "Go, Dog, Go!" in kindergarten - instead of diagnosing dyslexia in a struggling second-grader.

"Everybody is interested in understanding the root cause of dyslexia, so we can intervene early and do something about it," says Massachusetts Institute of Technology cognitive neuroscientist John Gabrieli, senior author of the study published last week in the journal Science.

[suffragette]

1. K&R

[LeftishBrit]

2. Interesting. There are other studies that suggest that people with dyslexia have subtle problems

with the sounds and stress patterns of language, so perhaps not too surprising that these problems could affect voice recognition. Contrary to a lot of popular myths, dyslexia is in most cases more of a problem with categorizing and manipulating the sounds of language, than a visual problem of e.g. seeing words backwards.

[HuckleB]

3. K&R.

[SheilaT]

4. Hmmmm. I often have trouble recognizing voices

on the phone, and I am very slightly dyslexic. I have learned to be very careful about certain kinds of information, especially numbers. Since I've taken up being more careful, I think maybe I'm slightly better at recognizing voices. I am in the habit of answering my phone with my name, and always immediately identifying myself when I call someone, because I never assume anyone else will recognize my voice.