Neural correlates of language and non-language visuospatial processing in adolescents with reading disability

Joshua John Diehl; Stephen J Frost; Gordon Sherman; W Einar Mencl; Anish Kurian; Peter Molfese; Nicole Landi; Jonathan Preston; Anja Soldan; Robert K Fulbright; Jay G Rueckl; Mark S Seidenberg; Fumiko Hoeft; Kenneth R Pugh

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.07.029

Neural correlates of language and non-language visuospatial processing in adolescents with reading disability

Neuroimage. 2014 Nov 1:101:653-66. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.07.029. Epub 2014 Jul 24.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology, 118 Haggar Hall, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA; Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: joshua.diehl@nd.edu.
² Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: frosts@haskins.yale.edu.
³ Newgrange School, 407 Nassau St., Princeton, NJ 08540, USA. Electronic address: info@thenewgrange.org.
⁴ Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: einar@haskins.yale.edu.
⁵ Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Department of Psychology, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-1020, USA. Electronic address: anish.kurian@uconn.edu.
⁶ Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: pmolfese@haskins.yale.edu.
⁷ Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: landi@haskins.yale.edu.
⁸ Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: preston@haskins.yale.edu.
⁹ Department of Neurology, Division of Cognitive Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: asoldan1@jhmi.edu.
¹⁰ Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Department of Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, MRRC, The Anlyan Center N137, P.O. Box 208043, New Haven, CT 06520-8043, USA. Electronic address: Robert.fulbright@yale.edu.
¹¹ Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Department of Psychology, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-1020, USA. Electronic address: jay.rueckl@uconn.edu.
¹² Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Department of Psychology, Brogden Hall, 1202W. Johnsons St., University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706-1969, USA. Electronic address: Seidenberg@wisc.edu.
¹³ Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Department of Psychiatry, University of California, Langley Porter Psychiatry Institute (LPPI), Langley Porter Psychiatric Hospital and Clinics (LPPHC), 401 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA. Electronic address: fumiko.hoeft@ucsf.edu.
¹⁴ Haskins Laboratories, 300 George St., Suite 900, New Haven, CT 06511, USA; Department of Psychology, 406 Babbidge Road, Unit 1020, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269-1020, USA. Electronic address: pugh@haskins.yale.edu.

Abstract

Despite anecdotal evidence of relative visuospatial processing strengths in individuals with reading disability (RD), only a few studies have assessed the presence or the extent of these putative strengths. The current study examined the cognitive and neural bases of visuospatial processing abilities in adolescents with RD relative to typically developing (TD) peers. Using both cognitive tasks and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) we contrasted printed word recognition with non-language visuospatial processing tasks. Behaviorally, lower reading skill was related to a visuospatial processing advantage (shorter latencies and equivalent accuracy) on a geometric figure processing task, similar to findings shown in two published studies. FMRI analyses revealed key group by task interactions in patterns of cortical and subcortical activation, particularly in frontostriatal networks, and in the distributions of right and left hemisphere activation on the two tasks. The results are discussed in terms of a possible neural tradeoff in visuospatial processing in RD.

Keywords: Dyslexia; Impossible figures; Reading; Visuospatial processing; fMRI.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adolescent
Adult
Brain Mapping / methods*
Dyslexia / physiopathology*
Female
Form Perception / physiology
Functional Laterality / physiology
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Pattern Recognition, Visual / physiology*
Reading*
Space Perception / physiology*
Young Adult

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding