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Psychologists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston studied dyslexic and non-dyslexic children using magnetoencephalography (MEG), a non-invasive, high-resolution form of functional imaging. The MEG highlighted precise activity in participants' left and right temporoparietal (TP) language areas to isolate speech-processing sites from sites involved with other aspects of language, such as memory and meaning.
They found that children without reading problems tried to distinguish between similar spoken syllables, speech areas in the left brain worked much harder than corresponding areas in the right brain, whose function is still unknown. But when children with dyslexia tried to do the same, those right-brain areas actually worked harder. These results suggest that children with dyslexia may lack the predominant involvement of left-hemisphere auditory association cortices that is normally active in both children and adults without reading problems.
It appears that the neurological deficit is specific to these areas of the brain and can occur in children with a wide range of general intellectual function. The researchers point out that poor reading can improve and that this new research shows shows that reliable brain correlates can be identified in individual children. The next phase of the research is planned using MEG brain imaging to evaluate how well a child with dyslexia responds to intervention.
The article is published in October Neuropsychology.
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