阅读能力的形成对于人体的发育具有里程碑意义，阅读能力对于人类而言会影响一生。尽管对于大多数儿童而言，这个过程是逐渐形成的，而一小部分儿童则存在着阅读学习困难。因此，寻找阅读学习过程的关键因子或者标记分子，对于阅读学习困难的诊断以及早期的干预治疗都有重要意义。在学龄儿童和成人中，一部分阅读学习相关的标记因子已经被发现了，其中很多被认为是与噪音里面的精准信息处理相关。然而，现在还并不知道，在学前儿童中，是否也有类似的阅读学习相关的标记因子。
Travis White-Schwoch和同事们近期对一组112名儿童的研究进行了分析，揭示了整合语音信息时大脑和行为学的关联。根据他们的数据，他们构建了预测学前儿童学的模型。他们认为，只需要通过一个30分钟的神经生理学的测试，来构建一个神经解码的模型，就可以依据这个模型来预测一年以后的学前儿童在不同方面的识字能力。而且这个模型还可以用来预测学前儿童的阅读学习能力，以及学龄儿童可能存在的阅读困难。
他们用噪音夹杂着和音，来测试儿童的神经解码的精确度。研究结果显示，在学前儿童中，那些能在噪音中够准确地分辨出和音的儿童，有很强的阅读学习能力。而对于更大些的学龄儿童，同样的趋势也被证明了，而且基于噪音中分辨和音的模型，还可以预测出哪些儿童曾经接受过阅读障碍的治疗过。这些数据就表明了，在学龄前儿童中，在噪音中分辨出重要信息的能力，是与阅读学习能力相关的。
那些在噪音中无法分离出重要语音信息的孩子，在每天的生活中，可能搞不清楚有些语音的意思，这种障碍会影响着他们的阅读能力的形成。因此，基于这种在噪音中分辨和音的测试模型，医生或许能够用这种模型来预测哪些学前儿童可能存在阅读学习障碍，并采用相应的干预措施，来提高他们的阅读学习能力，进而可能对他们今后的人生带来深远的影响。
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1002196
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Auditory Processing in Noise: A Preschool Biomarker for Literacy
Learning to read is a fundamental developmental milestone, and achieving reading competency has lifelong consequences. Although literacy development proceeds smoothly for many children, a subset struggle with this learning process, creating a need to identify reliable biomarkers of a child’s future literacy that could facilitate early diagnosis and access to crucial early interventions. Neural markers of reading skills have been identified in school-aged children and adults; many pertain to the precision of information processing in noise, but it is unknown whether these markers are present in pre-reading children. Here, in a series of experiments in 112 children (ages 3–14 y), we show brain–behavior relationships between the integrity of the neural coding of speech in noise and phonology. We harness these findings into a predictive model of preliteracy, revealing that a 30-min neurophysiological assessment predicts performance on multiple pre-reading tests and, one year later, predicts preschoolers’ performance across multiple domains of emergent literacy. This same neural coding model predicts literacy and diagnosis of a learning disability in school-aged children. These findings offer new insight into the biological constraints on preliteracy during early childhood, suggesting that neural processing of consonants in noise is fundamental for language and reading development. Pragmatically, these findings open doors to early identification of children at risk for language learning problems; this early identification may in turn facilitate access to early interventions that could prevent a life spent struggling to read.