title: Brain activity during processing objects and pseudo-objects: comparison between adult regular and dyslexic readers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The role of visual processing deficits in dyslexia remains unclear and continues to stir controversy. Most studies to date have used alphabetic and or other language-dependent patterns. The current study compares how dyslexics and regular readers process non-alphabetic visual patterns.
  
  
  METHODS
  The stimuli were black and white drawings, 50 meaningful (concrete objects) and 50 meaningless (pseudo-objects with no linguistic name) presented visually on a computer screen. Measures included behavioral accuracy and reaction time, event-related potential (ERP), and low resolution electromagnetic tomography (LORETA). The subjects were 15 dyslexic and 15 aged-matched regular readers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The dyslexics exhibited significantly longer reaction time and shorter latencies of P1 and P2 components to both objects and pseudo-objects compared to the regular readers. Data from the LORETA solution analysis indicated significantly different brain activity between the two groups: both exhibited higher left hemisphere activation when viewing objects compared to pseudo-objects; and dyslexics exhibited lower left hemisphere activation when viewing objects and higher right hemisphere activation when viewing pseudo-objects during the early stages of processing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results support the notion that brain activation of dyslexic readers differs from that of the regular readers when processing non-alphabetic patterns, and that the differences appear from the early stage of processing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results emphasize that differences in brain activity between dyslexic and regular readers can be seen even in a non-alphabetic task, and in early stages of processing.
authors.affiliation: The Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel. naama27@gmail.com
authors.forename: Naama
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mayseless
authors.forename: Zvia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Breznitz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D011932:Reading; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult