title: Intact but less accessible phonetic representations in adults with dyslexia.
abstract: Dyslexia is a severe and persistent reading and spelling disorder caused by impairment in the ability to manipulate speech sounds. We combined functional magnetic resonance brain imaging with multivoxel pattern analysis and functional and structural connectivity analysis in an effort to disentangle whether dyslexics' phonological deficits are caused by poor quality of the phonetic representations or by difficulties in accessing intact phonetic representations. We found that phonetic representations are hosted bilaterally in primary and secondary auditory cortices and that their neural quality (in terms of robustness and distinctness) is intact in adults with dyslexia. However, the functional and structural connectivity between the bilateral auditory cortices and the left inferior frontal gyrus (a region involved in higher-level phonological processing) is significantly hampered in dyslexics, suggesting deficient access to otherwise intact phonetic representations.
authors: Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
authors: Bart
authors: B
authors: Boets
authors: Hans P
authors: HP
authors: Op de Beeck
authors: Maaike
authors: M
authors: Vandermosten
authors: Sophie K
authors: SK
authors: Scott
authors: Céline R
authors: CR
authors: Gillebert
authors: Dante
authors: D
authors: Mantini
authors: Jessica
authors: J
authors: Bulthé
authors: Stefan
authors: S
authors: Sunaert
authors: Jan
authors: J
authors: Wouters
authors: Pol
authors: P
authors: Ghesquière
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001303:Auditory Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008037:Linguistics; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D010700:Phonetics; D011932:Reading; D013067:Speech Perception; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000503:physiopathology; D055815:Young Adult