An exploration of hemispheric asymmetries in temporal processing during middle childhood and adulthood and their relationship with language and reading during development

Hemispheric asymmetries in the temporal parsing of auditory signals facilitate speech processing. The developmental trajectory and functional correlates of these asymmetries remain unclear. The current thesis examined hemispheric asymmetries in auditory temporal processing in typically developing children, children born very preterm and young adults. Collectively, the results demonstrated that temporal processing asymmetries, reflected in the amplitude of the T-complex, are evident in middle childhood and adulthood. Importantly, the lateralisation of temporal processing was associated with expressive language and reading abilities during middle childhood, and these patterns did not differ significantly between typically developing children and children born very preterm.