Dyslexia on a continuum: A complex network approach

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 13; no. 12; p. e0208923
• Main Authors: Edwards, Erica S, Burke, Kali, Booth, James R, McNorgan, Chris
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 17-12-2018; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Adolescent; Analysis; Antecedent (Logic); Biology and Life Sciences; Brain; Brain - diagnostic imaging; Brain - physiopathology; Brain mapping; Brain Mapping - methods; Child; Children; Computer and Information Sciences; Diagnostic systems; Dyslexia; Dyslexia - diagnostic imaging; Dyslexia - physiopathology; Edwards, Chris; Female; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Graph theory; Grapheme phoneme correspondence; Humans; Information processing; Language; Learning disabilities; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Medical imaging; Medicine and Health Sciences; Neural networks; Neural Pathways - physiopathology; Orthography; Phonetics; Phonological processing; Phonology; Physical Sciences; Reading; Regression analysis; Research and Analysis Methods; Sensory integration; Social Sciences; Spelling; Studies; New York; United States > US
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0208923

We investigated the efficacy of graph-theoretic metrics of task-related functional brain connectivity in predicting reading difficulty and explored the hypothesis that task conditions emphasizing audiovisual integration would be especially diagnostic of reading difficulty. An fMRI study was conducted in which 24 children (8 to 14 years old) who were previously diagnosed with dyslexia completed a rhyming judgment task under three presentation modality conditions. Regression analyses found that characteristic connectivity metrics of the reading network showed a presentation modality dependent relationship with reading difficulty: Children with more segregated reading networks and those that used fewer of the available connections were those with the least severe reading difficulty. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that a lack of coordinated processing between the neural regions involved in phonological and orthographic processing contributes towards reading difficulty.