Comparison in overnight of speech consolidation between individuals with and without a diagnosis of dyslexia

Abstract

This research study investigated whether adults with dyslexia experience difficulties with overnight memory consolidation across different types of learning. Participants with and without a diagnosis of dyslexia completed three tasks designed to assess declarative memory (object recognition), procedural memory (serial reaction time), and speech-sound learning (discrimination and identification). Each task was administered in the evening and again the next morning to evaluate changes over a 12-hour period. Results demonstrated that declarative memory improved similarly across groups, supporting claims that this memory system remains intact in dyslexia. In contrast, individuals with dyslexia demonstrated weaker overnight retention on the procedural task, suggesting possible consolidation deficits. For speech-sound learning, the dyslexia group displayed greater gains overnight in identification, indicating potential differences in how sleep supports auditory memory. These findings suggest that memory consolidation in dyslexia may be domain-specific and influenced by task type, offering new insight into how sleep-related processes affect learning in this population.