In search for the neuroanatomical network underlying phonological aspects of reading: studies in typical and dyslexic readers across development (invited lecture)

The standard neurodevelopment model assumes that the core phonological decoding deficit in dyslexia is related to early anomalies in left dorsal fronto-to-temporoparietal regions, with a secondary later-developed deficit in building up orthographic word representations located in left ventral regions. I will present Diffusion Weighted Imaging data on the link between (1) dorsal and ventral white matter connections and (2) reading-related cognitive skills, such as phonological and orthographic processing. We conducted first a study in normal-reading and dyslexic adults, followed by a study in pre-readers with and without a family risk for dyslexia. The latter allows us to examine whether white matter deficits observed in adults with dyslexia predate reading, suggesting a causal relation. Finally, since phonological problems in dyslexia are assumed to be rooted in poor phonological representation, I will present behavioural and fMRI (MVPA) data on these phonological representations in adults with and without dyslexia.status: publishe