The Neurocircuitry for ReadingThe Neurocircuitry for Reading

Anterior (frontal) OCCIPITOTEMPORAL

(VENTRAL)

TEMPOROPARIETAL(DORSAL)

Neurotrajectories in Reading Development

Anterior

Occipitotemporal

Temporoparietal

• Increases in age and reading skill are associated with increased specialization of left hemisphere posterior brain regions

• Question: Given age-related changes in experience and plasticity how will this differ in adult learners?

The Neurobiology of Reading Disability

• Functional/structural neuroimaging indicate that poor readers, especially children, adolescents, and adults with reading disabilities fail to organize left hemisphere temporoparietal and occipitotemporal brain regions into a coherent reading circuit:

1) unstable and reduced brain activation2) reduced connectivity3) problems in learning, and consolidation of new learning4) reduced grey matter volume5) white matter tract anomalies

Instruction and the Neurocircuitry for Reading

• A growing number of studies with children and young adolescents have shown that effective remediation is associated with at least partial “normalization” of the neurocircuitry for reading.

• Question: Given age-related changes in brain plasticity and experience how might this differ in adult struggling readers?