[News] Study finds brain connections key to reading
(Figure from MIT news)
The researchers from MIT team found that they could predict the child’s visual word form area (VMFA), who was in before learning reading. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and diffusion-weighted imaging in order to trace the connection between the VMFA and other brain area. The researchers recruited some children, and took the scan twice. One is when the children were 5 years old (i.e. before learning reading), and the other one is when they were 8 years old (i.e. after learning reading). Even the child who doesn’t know how to read (so there is no VWFA), there are pre-existing connectivity pattern for the VWFA which has different connectivity compare to other brain area. Thus, from this result, the researchers suggest that it could helpful to identify the risk of developing dyslexia or other reading difficulties.
If you interested in, please click the following link.