Abstract

The visual word form area (VWFA) in the left ventral occipito-temporal (vOT) cortex is key to fluent reading in children and adults. Diminished VWFA activation during print processing tasks is a common finding in subjects with severe reading problems. Here, we report fMRI data from a multicentre study with 140 children in primary school (7.9–12.2 years; 55 children with dyslexia, 73 typical readers, 12 intermediate readers). All performed a semantic task on visually presented words and a matched control task on symbol strings. With this large group of children, including the entire spectrum from severely impaired to highly fluent readers, we aimed to clarify the association of reading fluency and left vOT activation during visual word processing. The results of this study confirm reduced word-sensitive activation within the left vOT in children with dyslexia. Interestingly, the association of reading skills and left vOT activation was especially strong and spatially extended in children with dyslexia. Thus, deficits in basic visual word form processing increase with the severity of reading disability but seem only weakly associated with fluency within the typical reading range suggesting a linear dependence of reading scores with VFWA activation only in the poorest readers.

Details

Title
Visual word form processing deficits driven by severity of reading impairments in children with developmental dyslexia
Author
Brem, S 1 ; Maurer, U 2 ; Kronbichler, M 3 ; Schurz, M 4 ; Richlan, F 4 ; Blau, V 5 ; Reithler, J 5 ; van der Mark S 6 ; Schulz, E 7 ; Bucher, K 8 ; Moll, K 9 ; Landerl, K 10 ; Martin, E 11 ; Goebel, R 5 ; Schulte-Körne, G 12 ; Blomert, L 5 ; Wimmer, H 4 ; Brandeis, D 13 

 University of Zurich, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland (GRID:grid.7400.3) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 0650); Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland (GRID:grid.5801.c) (ISNI:0000 0001 2156 2780) 
 University of Zurich, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland (GRID:grid.7400.3) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 0650); The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Department of Psychology, Hong Kong, China (GRID:grid.10784.3a) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 0482); The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Brain and Mind Institute, Hong Kong, China (GRID:grid.10784.3a) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 0482) 
 University of Salzburg, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, Salzburg, Austria (GRID:grid.7039.d) (ISNI:0000000110156330); Neuroscience Institute, Christian Doppler Clinic, Paracelsus Medical University, Salzburg, Austria (GRID:grid.21604.31) (ISNI:0000 0004 0523 5263) 
 University of Salzburg, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience and Department of Psychology, Salzburg, Austria (GRID:grid.7039.d) (ISNI:0000000110156330) 
 Maastricht University, Cognitive Neuroscience Department, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht, The Netherlands (GRID:grid.5012.6) (ISNI:0000 0001 0481 6099); Maastricht University, Maastricht Brain Imaging Center (M-BIC), Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht, The Netherlands (GRID:grid.5012.6) (ISNI:0000 0001 0481 6099) 
 University Children’s Hospital, University of Zürich, MR-Center, Zurich, Switzerland (GRID:grid.5012.6) 
 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Department of Neurology, Munich, Germany (GRID:grid.5252.0) (ISNI:0000 0004 1936 973X); University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Munich, Germany (GRID:grid.5252.0) 
 University Children’s Hospital, University of Zürich, MR-Center, Zurich, Switzerland (GRID:grid.5252.0) 
 University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Munich, Germany (GRID:grid.5252.0) 
10  University of Salzburg, Department of Psychology, Salzburg, Austria (GRID:grid.7039.d) (ISNI:0000000110156330); University of Graz, Institute of Psychology, Graz, Austria (GRID:grid.5110.5) (ISNI:0000000121539003) 
11  University Children’s Hospital, University of Zürich, MR-Center, Zurich, Switzerland (GRID:grid.5110.5) 
12  University Hospital, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatics, and Psychotherapy, Munich, Germany (GRID:grid.5012.6) 
13  University of Zurich, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland (GRID:grid.7400.3) (ISNI:0000 0004 1937 0650); Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland (GRID:grid.5801.c) (ISNI:0000 0001 2156 2780); Medical Faculty Mannheim, Heidelberg University, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim, Germany (GRID:grid.7700.0) (ISNI:0000 0001 2190 4373) 
Publication year
2020
Publication date
2020
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2471529324
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2020. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.