Peter W. Zinkus

Chronic Middle Ear Disease and Auditory Perceptual Deficits Is There a Link

Data are presented indicating a correlation between chronic recurrent otitis media of early childhood and an increased likelihood of subsequent auditory processing deficits in a group of children referred for evaluation of impaired learning. Helpful appendices are added for a better understanding of central auditory processing skills.

Learning Disabilities and Juvenile Delinquency

From the Department of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee, Center For The Health Sciences, Memphis, Tennessee. GRS Grant R07-3230-78 (UTCHS). Correspondence to: Dr. Peter W. Zinkus, Clinic For Exceptional Children, University of Tennessee Center For The Health Sciences, 800 Madison Avenue, Memphis, TN 38163. JUVENILE delinquency represents a form of adolescent maladaptive behavior, arising out of a complex of socioeconomic, psychologic, neurologic and emotional disturbances. Academic underachievement has been implicated as a significant factor contributing to juvenile delinquency during the past decade. 1-3 Earlier it had been believed that the

Intra- and Cross-Modal Transfer in Relation to Brain Dysfunction and Language Disorder

Brain damaged and normal subjects were tested on their ability to transfer information of varying complexity across sensory modalities. Subjects without neurological damage were compared to subjects with left and right hemisphere lesions. Tasks varied in complexity from simple matching of Morse code patterns within a sensory modality to cross-modal transfer across sensory modalities. The results confirmed that cross-modal matching ability is significantly impaired in subjects with posterior left hemisphere lesions, whereas subjects with lesions in other areas of the brain show minimal deficits in cross-modal abilities. The results are interpreted to support a multimodal basis for complex intellectual function. Language is hypothesized to be one response capability that depends on intact cross-modal functions, with the angular gyrus region of the dominant hemisphere forming an anatomical basis.