Reading: Research reports
Helping reading development
June 2008
Remedial instruction can close gap between good, poor readers
A brain imaging study of poor readers has found that 100
hours of remedial instruction not only improved the skills of struggling
readers, but also changed the way their brains activated when they comprehended
written sentences. 25 fifth-graders who were poor readers worked in groups of
three for an hour a day with a reading "personal trainer," a teacher specialized
in administering a remedial reading program. The training included both word
decoding exercises in which students were asked to recognize the word in its
written form and tasks in using reading comprehension strategies. Brain scans
while the children were reading revealed that the parietotemporal region —
responsible for decoding the sounds of written language and assembling them into
words and phrases that make up a sentence — was significantly less activated
among the poor readers than in the control group. The increases in activation
seen as a result of training were still evident, and even greater, a year later.
Although dyslexia is generally thought of as caused by difficulties in the
visual perception of letters, leading to confusions between letters like "p" and
"d", such difficulties occur in only about 10% of the cases. Most commonly, the
problem lies in relating the visual form of a letter to its sound.
The findings are available online in the August issue of Neuropsychologia.
Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-06/cmu-cmb061108.php
July 2003
Imaging study points to the importance of early stimulation in making good readers
A longitudinal study that used imaging to compare brain
activation patterns has identified two types of reading disability:
a primarily inherent type with higher cognitive ability (poor
readers who compensate for disability), and a more environmentally
influenced type with lower cognitive skills and attendance at more
disadvantaged schools (persistently poor readers). Compensated poor
readers were able to overcome some of the disability, improving
their ability to read words accurately and to understand what they
read. In contrast, the persistently poor readers continued to
experience difficulties; as children these readers had lower
cognitive ability and more often attended disadvantaged schools.
Brain activation patterns showed a disruption in the neural systems
for reading in compensated readers, while persistently poor readers
had the neural circuitry for reading real words, but it had not been
properly activated. The results suggest that providing early
interventions aimed at stimulating both the ability to sound out
words and to understand word meanings would be beneficial in
children at risk for reading difficulties associated with
disadvantage.
The findings were published in the July 1 issue of
Biological Psychiatry.
Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-07/yu-yri071503.htm
The neural substrate of reading
April 2006
Specific brain region for reading
Although a number of imaging studies have provided support for
the idea that there’s a specific area of the brain that enables us
to read efficiently by allowing us to process the visual image of
entire words, the question is still debated — partly because the
same area also seems to be involved in the recognition of other
objects and partly because damage in this region has never been
confined to this region alone. Now the experience of an epileptic
requiring removal of a small area next to the so-called visual
word-form area (VWFA) in the left
occipito-temporal
cortex has provided evidence of the region's importance for reading.
After the operation, the patient’s ability to comprehend words was
dramatically slower, and the results were consistent with him
reading letter by letter. A brain scan confirmed that the VWFA no
longer lit up when words were read, perhaps because the surgery
severed its connection to other parts of the brain.
The case study was reported in the 20 April issue of
Neuron.Full
reference
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2006/419/2?etoc
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=000D3A4E-A8D1-1446-9A6283414B7F0000
February 2004
Reading verbs activates motor cortex areas
Reading verbs activates motor cortex areas
A new imaging study has surprised researchers by revealing that
parts of the
motor cortex respond when people do nothing more active than
silently reading. However, the words read have to be action words.
When such words are read, appropriate regions are activated – for
example, reading “lick” will trigger blood flow in sites of the
motor cortex associated with tongue and mouth movements. Moreover,
activity also occurs in
premotor brain regions that influence learning of new actions,
as well as the language structures,
Broca's area and
Wernicke's area. The researchers suggest that these findings
challenge the assumption that word meanings are processed solely in
language structures – instead, our understanding of words depends on
the integration of information from several interconnected brain
structures that provide information about associated actions and
sensations.
The report appeared in the January 22 issue of
Neuron. Full
reference
http://www.sciencenews.org/20040207/fob2.asp
November 2003
Growing evidence cerebellum involved in language
An imaging study of children with selective problems in short term
phonological memory and others diagnosed with specific language
impairment (and matched controls) found that those with selective STPM
deficits and those with SLI had less gray matter in both sides of the
cerebellum compared to the children in the control groups. This supports
growing evidence that the cerebellum, an area of the brain once thought
to be involved only in the control of movement, also plays a role in
processing speech and language.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-11/sfn-ssb111103.htm
Gender differences in reading
May 2004
Confirmation: boys have more literacy problems than girls
Previous research has suggested the reason that reading
disabilities are more common among boys is that teachers simply tend
to recognize the problem in boys more often. It is sometimes thought
that boys are more disruptive, so the teachers pay more attention to
them. However, new research investigating four previous large-scale
studies of reading in children (2 New Zealand and 2 U.K.), involving
a total of some 9,800 children, seems to make it clear that boys
really do have more reading difficulties than girls. Across all the
studies, about 20% of the boys had reading disabilities compared
with about 11% of the girls. The studies used representative samples
of children, not simply children already known to be having learning
difficulties - a weakness of some previous research.
The study was reported in the April 28 issue of the
Journal of the American Medical Association.
Full reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-05/uow-rrf051304.htm
October 2001
Gender differences in neural networks underlying beginning reading
A recent study uses EEG readings to investigate gender differences in
the emerging connectivity of neural networks associated with
phonological processing, verbal fluency, higher-level thinking and word
retrieval (skills needed for beginning reading), in preschoolers. The
study confirms different patterns of growth in building connections
between boys and girls. These differences point to the different
advantages each gender brings to learning to read. Boys favor vocabulary
sub-skills needed for comprehension while girls favor fluency and phonic
sub-skills needed for the mechanics of reading.
The findings were presented at Genomes and Hormones: An Integrative
Approach to Gender Differences in Physiology, an American Physiological
Society (APS) conference held October 17-20 in Pittsburgh.
Reference
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2001-10/aps-gad101701.htm
