title: White matter and reading deficits after pediatric traumatic brain injury: A diffusion tensor imaging study.
abstract: Pediatric traumatic brain injury often results in significant long-term deficits in mastery of reading ability. This study aimed to identify white matter pathways that, when damaged, predicted reading deficits in children. Based on the dual-route model of word reading, we predicted that integrity of the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus would be related to performance in sight word identification while integrity of the superior longitudinal fasciculus would be related to performance in phonemic decoding. Reading fluency and comprehension were hypothesized to relate to the superior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and cingulum bundle. The connectivity of white matter pathways was used to predict reading deficits in children aged 6 to 16 years with traumatic brain injury (n = 29) and those with orthopedic injury (n = 27) using tract-based spatial statistics. Results showed that children with traumatic brain injury and reduced microstructural integrity of the superior longitudinal fasciculus demonstrated reduced word-reading ability on sight word and phonemic decoding tasks. Additionally, children with traumatic brain injury and microstructural changes involving the cingulum bundle demonstrated reduced reading fluency. Results support the association of a dorsal pathway via the superior longitudinal fasciculus with both sight word reading and phonemic decoding. No association was identified between the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and sight word reading or phonemic decoding. Reading fluency was associated with the integrity of the cingulum bundle. These findings support dissociable pathways predicting word reading and fluency using Diffusion Tensor Imaging and provide additional information for developing models of acquired reading deficits by specifying areas of brain damage which may predict reading deficits following recovery from the acute phase of TBI.
authors.affiliation: University of Hawaii at Hilo, Department of Psychology, 200 W Kawili St., Hilo, HI 96720, United States.
authors.forename: Chad Parker
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Health Science Center, Pediatrics, 7000 Fannin Street, Houston, TX 77030, United States.
authors.forename: Jenifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Juranek
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Health Science Center, Pediatrics, 7000 Fannin Street, Houston, TX 77030, United States.
authors.forename: Paul R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Swank
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Health Science Center, Pediatrics, 7000 Fannin Street, Houston, TX 77030, United States.
authors.forename: Larry
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kramer
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Health Science Center, Pediatrics, 7000 Fannin Street, Houston, TX 77030, United States.
authors.forename: Charles S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Health Science Center, Pediatrics, 7000 Fannin Street, Houston, TX 77030, United States.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ewing-Cobbs
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D066127:White Matter / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: Diffusion Tensor Imaging; Pediatric; Reading; Traumatic brain injury