This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Simos, P. G. Articles by Papanicolaou, A. C. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Simos, P. G. Articles by Papanicolaou, A. C. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Intensive Instruction Affects Brain Magnetic Activity Associated with Oral Word Reading in Children with Persistent Reading Disabilities

Department of Psychology at the University of Crete, Greece, psimos{at}psy.soc .uoc.gr

Jack M. Fletcher

University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston, Center for Academic and Reading Skills (CARS)

Shirin Sarkari

Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston

Rebecca Billingsley-Marshall

Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston

Carolyn A. Denton

Department of Special Education at the University of Texas at Austin, Vaughn-Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts at the university

Andrew C. Papanicolaou

Department of Neurosurgery, Division of Clinical Neurosciences and of the Magnetoencephalography Laboratory at the University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston

Fifteen children ages 7 to 9 years who had persistent reading difficulties despite adequate instruction were provided with intensive tutorial interventions. The interventions targeted deficient phonological processing and decoding skills for 8 weeks (2 hours per day) followed by an 8-week, 1-hour-per-day intervention that focused on the development of reading fluency skills. Spatiotemporal brain activation profiles were obtained at baseline and after each 8-week intervention program using magnetoencephalography during the performance of an oral sight-word reading task. Changes in brain activity were found in the posterior part of the middle temporal gyrus (Brodmann's Area [BA] 21: increased degree of activity and reduced onset latency), the lateral occipitotemporal region (BA 19/37: decreased onset latency of activation), and the premotor cortex (increased onset latency). Overall changes associated with the intervention were primarily normalizing, as indicated by (a) increased activity in a region that is typically involved in lexical—semantic processing (BA 21) and (b) a shift in the relative timing of regional activity in temporal and frontal cortices to a pattern typically seen in unimpaired readers. These findings extend previous results in demonstrating significant changes in the spatiotemporal profile of activation associated with word reading in response to reading remediation.

Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol. 40, No. 1, 37-48 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/00222194070400010301


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?