title: Neural systems for compensation and persistence: young adult outcome of childhood reading disability.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study examined whether and how two groups of young adults who were poor readers as children (a relatively compensated group and a group with persistent reading difficulties) differed from nonimpaired readers and if there were any factors distinguishing the compensated from persistently poor readers that might account for their different outcomes.
  
  
  METHODS
  Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we studied three groups of young adults, ages 18.5-22.5 years, as they read pseudowords and real words: 1) persistently poor readers (PPR; n = 24); 2) accuracy improved (compensated) readers (AIR; n = 19); and 3) nonimpaired readers (NI, n = 27).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Compensated readers, who are accurate but not fluent, demonstrate a relative underactivation in posterior neural systems for reading located in left parietotemporal and occipitotemporal regions. Persistently poor readers, who are both not fluent and less accurate, activate posterior reading systems but engage them differently from nonimpaired readers, appearing to rely more on memory-based rather than analytic word identification strategies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings of divergent neural outcomes as young adults are both new and unexpected and suggest a neural basis for reading outcomes of compensation and persistence in adults with childhood dyslexia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06510-8064, USA.
authors.forename: Sally E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Shaywitz
authors.forename: Bennett A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Shaywitz
authors.forename: Robert K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Fulbright
authors.forename: Pawel
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Skudlarski
authors.forename: W Einar
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Mencl
authors.forename: R Todd
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Constable
authors.forename: Kenneth R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Pugh
authors.forename: John M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Holahan
authors.forename: Karen E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Marchione
authors.forename: Jack M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: G Reid
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Lyon
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Gore
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007805:Language Development Disorders / Q000503:physiopathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading