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8 - The neural correlates of reading disorder: functional magnetic resonance imaging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

By
Juliana Paré-Blagoev
Edited by
Kurt W. Fischer ,
Jane Holmes Bernstein  and
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Juliana Paré-Blagoev
Affiliation:
Research Scientist The MIND Institute; Assistant Professor University of New Mexico Department of Psychology
Kurt W. Fischer
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Jane Holmes Bernstein
Affiliation:
The Children's Hospital, Boston
Mary Helen Immordino-Yang
Affiliation:
University of Southern California
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Summary

Overview: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides a powerful tool for analyzing brain correlates of reading problems, although conclusions must be qualified by methodological confounds that researchers need to examine. Theoretical analyses of diverse patterns of dyslexia suggest three different impairments in phonological, visual, or auditory skills. Recent research with fMRI indicates that distinct brain regions most likely show reduced activation for each of these problems. For children with phonological problems, reduction is in left temporo-parietal regions, which are involved in speech. For those with visual problems, reduction is in the magnocellular system, which is involved in vision. For those with temporal processing problems, reduction seems to include the frontal and left temporal areas.

The Editors

Ever since Dejerine's work implicated the left angular gyrus as playing a special role in impairments of reading and writing, neuroscientists have recognized the importance of understanding the neural underpinnings of dyslexia (Dejerine, 1891). The invention in the 1990s of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a non-invasive neuroimaging technique, allows unprecedented access to the human brain at work at spatial resolutions of millimeters and temporal resolutions of seconds. (Some analysis techniques push this resolution even lower.) Findings have mirrored differences found in morphological studies with prior techniques, and gone beyond them: on the order of a dozen different brain regions have been shown to have different blood flow patterns during reading-related tasks in dyslexics as compared to normal readers.

Type
Chapter
Information
Mind, Brain, and Education in Reading Disorders , pp. 148 - 167
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2007

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