Modifying the brain activation of poor readers during sentence comprehension with extended remedial instruction: a longitudinal study of neuroplasticity.
This study used fMRI to longitudinally assess the impact of intensive remedial instruction on cortical activation among 5th grade poor readers during a sentence comprehension task. The children were tested at three time points: prior to remediation, after 100 h of intensive instruction, and 1 year after the instruction had ended. Changes in brain activation were also measured among 5th grade good readers at the same time points for comparison. The central finding was that prior to instruction, the poor readers had significantly less activation than good readers bilaterally in the parietal cortex. Immediately after instruction, poor readers made substantial gains in reading ability, and demonstrated significantly increased activation in the left angular gyrus and the left superior parietal lobule. Activation in these regions continued to increase among poor readers 1 year post-remediation, resulting in a normalization of the activation. These results are interpreted as reflecting changes in the processes involved in word-level and sentence-level assembly. Areas of overactivation were also found among poor readers in the medial frontal cortex, possibly indicating a more effortful and attentive guided reading strategy.
Meyler
Ann
A
Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States.
Keller
Timothy A
TA
Cherkassky
Vladimir L
VL
Gabrieli
John D E
JD
Just
Marcel Adam
MA
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods; D007807:Language Tests; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D011932:Reading
D010100:Oxygen