Atypical hemispheric asymmetries for the processing of phonological features in children with rolandic epilepsy

We assessed language lateralization in 177 healthy 4- to 11-year-old children and adults and atypical asymmetries associated with unilateral epileptic foci in 18 children with benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes (BECTS). Dichotic listening results revealed two indices of immature functional asymmetry when the focus was left-sided (BECTS-L). First, children with BECTS-L did not show left hemisphere dominance for the processing of place of articulation, which was recorded in children with BECTS-R and control children. On the contrary, healthy children exhibited a gradual increase in left hemisphere dominance for place processing during childhood, which is consistent with the shift from global to finer-grained acoustic analysis predicted by the Developmental Weighting Shift model. Second, children with BECTS-L showed atypical left hemisphere involvement in the processing of the voiced value (+ V), associated with a long acoustic event in French stop consonants, whereas right hemisphere dominance increased with age for + V processing in healthy children. BECTS-L, therefore, interferes with the development of left hemisphere dominance for specific phonological mechanisms.

Research highlights► Dichotic listening in children with benign epilepsy with centrotemporal spikes and healthy 4- to-11-year-olds. ► Left epileptic focus decreases left hemisphere dominance for place of articulation. ► Left epileptic focus increases right hemisphere dominance for the voiced feature. ► The results reflect immature strategies in identifying phonological features. ► Benign epilepsy interferes with the development of functional brain asymmetries.