title: NRSN1 associated grey matter volume of the visual word form area reveals dyslexia before school.
abstract: Literacy learning depends on the flexibility of the human brain to reconfigure itself in response to environmental influences. At the same time, literacy and disorders of literacy acquisition are heritable and thus to some degree genetically predetermined. Here we used a multivariate non-parametric genetic model to relate literacy-associated genetic variants to grey and white matter volumes derived by voxel-based morphometry in a cohort of 141 children. Subsequently, a sample of 34 children attending grades 4 to 8, and another sample of 20 children, longitudinally followed from kindergarten to first grade, were classified as dyslexics and controls using linear binary support vector machines. The NRSN1-associated grey matter volume of the 'visual word form area' achieved a classification accuracy of ~ 73% in literacy-experienced students and distinguished between later dyslexic individuals and controls with an accuracy of 75% at kindergarten age. These findings suggest that the cortical plasticity of a region vital for literacy might be genetically modulated, thereby potentially preconstraining literacy outcome. Accordingly, these results could pave the way for identifying and treating the most common learning disorder before it manifests itself in school.
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany skeide@cbs.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Michael A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Skeide
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Indra
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kraft
authors.affiliation: 2 Cognitive Genetics Unit, Department of Cell Therapy, Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Perlickstraße 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Bent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Müller
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany 3 Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Rudower Chaussee 18, 12489 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Gesa
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Schaadt
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Nicole E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Neef
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Brauer
authors.affiliation: 2 Cognitive Genetics Unit, Department of Cell Therapy, Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Perlickstraße 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Arndt
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wilcke
authors.affiliation: 2 Cognitive Genetics Unit, Department of Cell Therapy, Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Perlickstraße 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany 4 Institute for Medical Informatics, Statistics and Epidemiology, Universität Leipzig, Härtelstraße 16-18, 04107 Leipzig, Germany 5 LIFE - Leipzig Research Center for Civilization Diseases, Universität Leipzig, Härtelstraße 16-18, 04107 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Holger
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kirsten
authors.affiliation: 2 Cognitive Genetics Unit, Department of Cell Therapy, Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy and Immunology, Perlickstraße 1, 04103 Leipzig, Germany 6 Fraunhofer Research Institution for Marine Biotechnology, Department of Medical Cell Technology, and Institute for Medical and Marine Biotechnology, University of Lübeck, Mönkhofer Weg 239a, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Boltze
authors.affiliation: 1 Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Stephanstraße 1a, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Angela D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Friederici
keywords: NRSN1; dyslexia; imaging genetics; visual word form area; voxel-based morphometry