Dichotic Listening Deficits and the Prediction of Substance Use in Young Boys

Gail A. Wasserman, Ph.D, Daniel S. Pine, M.D., Sara B. Workman, M.P.H., and Gerard E. Bruder, Ph.D.

From the Departments of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (Dr. Wasserman, Dr. Pine, Ms. Workman)
and Biopsychology (Dr. Bruder), New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University.

Abstract

Objective: Prior studies note relationships among verbal deficits, disruptive psychopathology, and substance use. The current study examines the relationship between verbal deficits, assessed through a dichotic listening test, and children's substance use.
Methods: A series of 87 young boys was prospectively followed over a 1- to 2-year period. A prior study in these boys noted a cross-sectional relationship between disruptive psychopathology and deficits on a dichotic consonant-vowel listening test. The current study examines the predictive relationship between this language-related deficit at one study wave and substance use assessed during a follow-up study wave.
Results: Reduced right ear accuracy, reflecting a deficit in left hemisphere processing ability, predicted substance use at follow-up. This association was independent of any other predictors, including cognitive or behavioral indices of substance use risk.
Conclusions: A lateralized deficit in verbal processing on a dichotic listening task predicts change in substance use by follow-up. Findings are consistent with other evidence linking early childhood lateralization abnormalities to development of disruptive psychopathology.