Phonological processing in dyslexic children: a study combining functional imaging and event related potentials

• Published in: Neuroscience letters Vol. 318; no. 1; pp. 5 - 8
• Main Authors: Georgiewa, Petra, Rzanny, Reinhard, Gaser, Christian, Gerhard, Uwe-Jens, Vieweg, Uta, Freesmeyer, Daniela, Mentzel, Hans-Joachim, Kaiser, Werner Alois, Blanz, Bernhard
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier Ireland Ltd 18.01.2002; Elsevier
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Broca's area; Child; Child clinical studies; Children; Developmental dyslexia; Dyslexia - diagnosis; Dyslexia - physiopathology; Event related potential; Evoked Potentials, Visual - physiology; Frontal Lobe - physiology; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Humans; Language and communication disorders; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Phonetics; Phonological processing; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reading; Visual Perception - physiology; Developmental dyslexia; Broca's area; Reading; P3; Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Children; Phonological processing; Event related potential; Human; Communication disorder; Reading disorder; Imaging; Electrophysiology; Dyslexia; Phonology; Child; Event evoked potential; Language disorder; Functional imaging
• ISSN: 0304-3940; 1872-7972
• DOI: 10.1016/S0304-3940(01)02236-4

Difficulties in phonological processing are currently considered one of the major causes for dyslexia. Nine dyslexic children and eight control children were investigated using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during non-oral reading of German words. All subjects silently read words and pronounceable non-words in an event related potentials (ERP) investigation, as well. The fMRI showed a significant difference in the activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus between the dyslexic and control groups, resulting from a hyperactivation in the dyslexics. The ERP scalp distribution showed a significant distinction between the two groups concerning the topographic difference for left frontal electrodes in a time window 250–600 ms after stimulus onset for non-word reading. Both the fMRI and the ERP results support differences in phonological processing between dyslexic and normal-reading children.