Phonological decoding involves left posterior fusiform gyrus

Aloud reading of novel words is achieved by phonological decoding, a process in which grapheme-to-phoneme conversion rules are applied to "sound out" a word's spoken representation. Numerous brain imaging studies have examined the neural bases of phonological decoding by contrasting pseudoword (pronounceable nonwords) to real word reading. However, only a few investigations have examined pseudoword reading under both aloud and silent conditions, task parameters that are likely to significantly alter the functional anatomy of phonological decoding. Subjects participated in an fMRI study of aloud pseudoword, aloud real word, silent pseudoword, and silent real word reading. Using this two-by-two design, we examined effects of word-type (real words vs. pseudowords) and response-modality (silent vs. aloud) and their interactions. We found 1) four regions to be invariantly active across the four reading conditions: the anterior aspect of the left precentral gyrus (Brodmann's Area (BA) 6), and three areas within the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex; 2) a main effect of word-type (pseudowords > words) in left inferior frontal gyrus and left intraparietal sulcus; 3) a main effect of response-modality (aloud > silent) that included bilateral motor, auditory, and extrastriate cortex; and 4) a single left hemisphere extrastriate region showing a word-type by response-modality interaction effect. This region, within the posterior fusiform cortex at BA 19, was uniquely modulated by varying phonological processing demands. This result suggests that when reading, word forms are subject to phonological analysis at the point they are first recognized as alphabetic stimuli and BA 19 is involved in processing the phonological properties of words.     

A systematic review of strategies and computer-based intervention (CBI) for reading comprehension of children with autism

This paper presents a systematic review of relevant published studies on reading comprehension for children with autism, focusing on vocabulary instruction and text comprehension instruction from years 2000 to 2011. This systematic review attempts to address three specific research questions: strategies of vocabulary instruction and text comprehension instruction used, computer-based intervention (CBI) used or developed during study, and the effectiveness of using CBI for teaching children with autism. There are five strategies of vocabulary instruction and seven strategies of text comprehension instruction. Results indicate that two strategies of vocabulary instruction, multimedia methods and explicit instruction were found to be more commonly used than the other three. On the same note, question answering strategy of text comprehension instruction was discovered to be used more often than the other six. Results also indicate that children with autism can benefit from the strategies of reading comprehension and that the use of CBI as a mode of instruction for reading comprehension improved learning of children. This is clearly evident judging from the performance of children between pre-tests and post-tests of studies in which CBI was used. However, due to heterogeneity of participants, this is not always the case; a few studies reported no improvement in the learning of children with autism.     

Using our current understanding of dyslexia to support early identification and intervention

One of the major risk factors for reading disability is difficulty learning to read words in text in an accurate and fluent manner. This is apparent when a child at risk of dyslexia first starts to attempt to read. Dyslexic children struggle to grasp and automate the alphabetic principle (ie, they cannot "sound out" words or use phonemic decoding strategies) and therefore have difficulty deciphering unfamiliar words that they have not encountered before. Even though many of these words are part of the child's oral vocabulary, the child cannot recognize them in printed form. As a result, reading can be extremely laborious and time-consuming, fraught with errors, and altogether an unrewarding, aversive experience. To be an efficient reader, one must be able to rapidly and effortlessly recognize many words by sight, and for a child to acquire this facility requires multiple exposures to these words. The difficulty that dyslexic children have in developing reliable and efficient phonemic decoding ability makes the acquisition of a lexicon of sight words a much slower process than it is for the average reader. Several other factors can affect a child's ability to read, which are reviewed herein. However, early recognition and treatment of deficient phonologic awareness are an extremely important step in the prevention of a reading problem in the child who is at risk of dyslexia.     

Deficit of language comprehension in a child with semantic-pragmatic disorder--dissociation between the phonemic and semantic processing abilities]

We studied the language comprehension deficit of a 11-year-old child with a semantic-pragmatic disorder. We used an original test battery using abstract nouns common to the tasks of repetition, reading aloud, auditory comprehension and comprehension of written words. Although he could repeat and read aloud words as good as normal controls, he could not choose correct pictures from semantically or phonemically resembling pictures by listening to or reading target words. This test demonstrated the dissociation between his phonemic and semantic processing abilities. An examination of the cerebral blood flow with SPECT suggested that the dysfunction of the left temporal lobe caused the deficit in language comprehension.     

Lateralized interference in concurrent manual activity: influence of age in children

Thirty-six right-handed bilingual children equally drawn from the two age groups of seven to nine, and eleven to thirteen years, concurrently performed a sequential finger tapping task while: (a) sitting quiet (b) reading aloud, and (c) reading aloud with an instructions to read carefully. The results showed that reading interfered more with right- than with left-hand tapping, but only in older children. The careful reading condition, however, did not add any further manual interference. The data suggest that differential right-hand tapping disruption varies with age and/or with the amount of exposure to a language or languages. These results are discussed in terms of variant and invariant cerebral asymmetry of function during childhood.     

Effects of targeted reading instruction on phonological awareness and phonic decoding in children with down syndrome

This research evaluated the effectiveness of reading instruction targeting oral reading and phonological awareness for children with Down syndrome (affecting chromosome 21). The participants were 7 children ranging in age from 2 years, 11 months to 10 years, 8 months. Each child acted as his/her own control, with assessments of language, cognition, phonological awareness, word and short-passage comprehension, and oral reading ability conducted on four occasions (initially, preintervention, postintervention and delayed postintervention) over approximately a 12-month period. The intervention was conducted over 10 weekly sessions and involved individual instruction. The postintervention assessment results provided evidence that phonic reading instruction was generally effective in improving reading skills and phonological awareness of children with Down syndrome.     

Anomic alexia of kanji in a patient with anomic aphasia

The ability to read aloud kanji (logogram) words and to comprehend their meaning was systematically examined to clarify the underlying mechanism of kanji alexia in a patient with anomic aphasia. Confrontation naming, reading aloud and reading comprehension tasks were performed using 110 words from 11 semantic categories written in kanji or kana. Performance in oral reading of kanji words was significantly worse than oral reading of the same words transcribed into kana words. In addition, for kanji words reading aloud was much worse than reading comprehension. Oral reading of kanji words had a significant correlation with naming pictures corresponding to the words, but no correlation with comprehension of kanji words. Qualitative analyses demonstrated that errors in oral reading and naming tasks had many features in common. Our results indicated that some common mechanisms underlie both naming and oral reading of kanji words. We propose calling this type of alexia "anomic alexia of kanji", which should be distinguished from kanji alexia with difficulty in both reading aloud and comprehension. Lesions in our patient were located in the middle part of the left middle temporal gyrus and its subcortical area, which could be important for access to the phonological lexicon from semantics.     

A patient with aphasia using the nonsemantic lexical route for Kanji reading

We report a patient with aphasia, caused by cerebral hemorrhage, who probably used the nonsemantic lexical route when reading words aloud. To investigate the mechanisms underlying her reading dysfunction, we analyzed her reading abilities using the Dual-Route Cascaded Model. Language tests resulted in low correct percentages for both reading comprehension and reading nonwords aloud, suggesting problems in the semantic system and the nonlexical route. Conversely, the patient showed high scores on the reading words aloud task. Although she failed to understand many inconsistent-atypical words in the reading comprehension test, she correctly read most words aloud, suggesting that she used the nonsemantic lexical route. In addition, the lexical reading route was analyzed in detail by using inconsistent-atypical Kanji words as stimuli. Finally, we analyzed her reading dysfunction compared with previous cases.     

Current status of treatments for dyslexia: critical review

The acquisition of reading is a complex neurobiologic process. Identifying the most effective instruction and remedial intervention methods for children at risk of developing reading problems and for those who are already struggling is equally complex. This article aims to provide the clinician with a review of more current findings on the prevention and remediation of reading problems in children, along with an approach to considering the diagnosis and treatment of a child with dyslexia. The first part of the review describes interventions targeted at preventing reading difficulties in the at-risk younger child. The second part of the review discusses the efficacy of approaches to treat the older, reading-disabled child ("intervention studies"). Factors that impact the response to treatment are also discussed, as are neuroimaging studies that offer insight into how the brain responds to treatment interventions. With appropriate instruction, at-risk readers can become both accurate and fluent readers. In contrast, although intensive, evidence-based remedial interventions can markedly improve reading accuracy in older, reading-disabled children, they have been significantly less effective in closing the fluency gap. Owing to the dynamic course of language development and the changes in language demands over time, even after a child has demonstrated a substantial response to treatment interventions, his or her subsequent progress should be carefully tracked to ensure optimal progress toward the development of functional reading and written language skills.     

Cognitive and linguistic predictors of reading comprehension in children with intellectual disabilities

A considerable number of children with intellectual disabilities (ID) are able to acquire basic word reading skills. However, not much is known about their achievements in more advanced reading comprehension skills. In the present study, a group of 49 children with ID and a control group of 21 typically developing children with word decoding skills in the normal ranges of first grade were compared in lower level (explicit meaning) and higher level (implicit meaning) reading comprehension abilities. Moreover, in the group of children with ID it was examined to what extent their levels of lower level and higher level reading comprehension could be predicted from their linguistic skills (word decoding, vocabulary, language comprehension) and cognitive skill (nonverbal reasoning). It was found that children with ID were weaker than typically developing children in higher level reading comprehension but not in lower level reading comprehension. Children with ID also performed below the control group on nonverbal reasoning and language comprehension. After controlling for nonverbal reasoning, linguistic skills predicted lower level reading comprehension but not higher level reading comprehension. It can be concluded that children with ID who have basic decoding skill do reasonably well on lower level reading comprehension but continue to have problems with higher level reading comprehension.     

Reading skills in children with Down syndrome: a meta-analytic review

The authors examine the reading profile in children with Down syndrome by comparing the nonword decoding skills in children with Down syndrome and typically developing children matched for word recognition level. Journal articles published before 04.05.2010 were identified by using the keyword Down* cross-referenced to ‘reading’, ‘literacy’, ‘decoding’, and ‘reading comprehension’ were selected. A total of eight papers met the criteria for inclusion. Each study was reviewed and coded on both inclusion criteria and coding protocol before the analysis was performed. Children with Down syndrome had equivalent nonword decoding skills to typically developing children matched for word recognition level, but showed deficits on measures of two important underlying skills, vocabulary and phonological awareness. Differences in vocabulary, but not phonological awareness, were predictive of differences in nonword decoding skills. The practical and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.     

High frequency rTMS over the left parietal lobule increases non-word reading accuracy

Increasing evidence in the literature supports the usefulness of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in studying reading processes. Two brain regions are primarily involved in phonological decoding: the left superior temporal gyrus (STG), which is associated with the auditory representation of spoken words, and the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL), which operates in phonological computation. This study aimed to clarify the specific contribution of IPL and STG to reading aloud and to evaluate the possibility of modulating healthy participants' task performance using high frequency repetitive TMS (hf-rTMS). The main finding is that hf-rTMS over the left IPL improves non-word reading accuracy (fewer errors), whereas hf-rTMS over the right STG selectively decreases text-reading accuracy (more errors). These results confirm the prevalent role of the left IPL in grapheme-to-phoneme conversion. The non-word reading improvement after Left-IPL stimulation provide a direct link between left IPL activation and advantages in sublexical procedures, mainly involved in non-word reading. Results indicate also the specific involvement of STG in reading morphologically complex words and in processing the representation of the text. The text reading impairment after stimulation of the right STG can be interpreted in light of an inhibitory influence on the homologous area. In sum, data document that hf-rTMS is effective in modulating the reading accuracy of expert readers and that the modulation is task related and site specific. These findings suggest new perspectives for the treatment of reading disorders.     

纯失读者动物词汇保留一例

报道一例左顶枕梗塞后纯失读病人。失语检查显示：除抄写外，其言语，听理解及书 有机正常，阅读存在明显困难，其中视读完成３０％，听字辨认完成９０％，字画匹配完成５５％，读指令并执行及读句选答案填空完全不能。补充阅读检查发现有关动物范畴词汇的阅读阅读能力被保留。结合本例情况讨论了其发生机理。     

Effects of training of shadowing and reading aloud of second language on working memory and neural systems

Shadowing and reading aloud both involve multiple complex cognitive processes, and both are considered effective methods for second-language learning. The working memory system, particularly the phonological loop, has been suggested to be involved in shadowing and reading aloud. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a 4-week intensive adaptive training including shadowing and reading aloud of second language on working-memory capacity, regional gray matter volume (rGMV), and functional activation related to the n-back working-memory task in young adults. The results showed that compared with the training groups without speaking (listening to compressed speech and active control involving the second language), the training groups with speaking (shadowing and reading aloud) showed a tendency for greater test-retest increases in digit-span scores, and significantly greater test-retest decreases in N-back task reaction time (increase in working memory performance). Imaging analyses revealed compared with the active control group, shadowing group exhibited decreases in rGMV and brain activity during the working memory task (2-back task), in the left cerebellum and reading group exhibited decreases in them in the right anterior insula. These regions are parts of the phonological loop, suggesting the presence of training-induced neural plasticity in these neurocognitive mechanisms.

     

Who is best at predicting children's anxiety in response to a social evaluative task?: A comparison of child,parent, and teacher reports

The purpose of this preliminary study was to examine the validity of child, parent, and teacher reports of child social anxiety in predicting the child's responses to a social evaluative task. Children, parents, and teachers each completed a measure of social anxiety, as well as a measure that asked them to predict the child's anxiety during a behavioral approach task (BAT) of reading aloud in front of a video camera. Consistent with previous literature, analyses revealed poor agreement across informants. Importantly, children's reports predicted their own anxious feelings and, to some degree, their behaviors during the task, whereas other informants' reports did not. We recommend that further research examine the relative validity of multiple informants' reports in predicting children's real-life behavior.     

Preserved ability to read aloud kanji idioms in left handed alexia]

We report a 69-year-old left-handed man, who developed alexia after a right medial occipito-temporal lobe infarction. On admission to the rehabilitation department two months after the onset, neurological examination showed left hemianopia, left hemiparesis, decreased deep sensation on the left side, and alexia. A brain MRI demonstrated infarcts in the right medial occipito-temporal lobe and the splenium of the corpus callosum. Detailed neuropsychological examination was performed two months after the onset. The patient was alert and cooperative. His speech was fluent with some word-finding difficulty. Comprehension for spoken materials, repetition, and naming abilities were all preserved. Systematic examination for reading revealed that reading aloud was disturbed in both kanji and kana words. Reading comprehension was significantly better for kanji words than kana words. First, we examined the effects of number of characters in a word. The number of characters in a word didn't affect his reading performance. Second, his performance on reading aloud of usual kanji words was compared with that of kanji words representing idioms. A kanji idiom is different from usual kanji words, in which pronunciation of each character is selected from several options. Reading aloud kanji idioms was significantly better than usual kanji words. In addition, reaction time to complete reading a word was much shorter for kanji idioms than usual kanji. An analysis of qualitative features of errors revealed that most errors in kanji idiom reading were semantically similar to the correct answers, while many errors in usual kanji word reading were classified into "don't know" responses. These findings suggested that a kanji idiom was tightly connected to its pronunciation, which resulted in his much better performance for kanji idiom reading. Overlearning of a unique relationship between a kanji idiom and its pronunciation might modify neuronal organization for reading.