title: White matter properties differ in 6-year old Readers and Pre-readers.
abstract: Reading, an essential life skill in modern society, is typically learned during childhood. Adults who can read show white matter differences compared to adults who never learned to read. Studies have not established whether children who can read show similar white matter differences compared to children who cannot read. We compared 6-year old children who could decode written English words and pseudowords (n = 31; Readers) and 6-year old children who could not decode pseudowords and had a standard score <100 on a task for reading single words (n = 11; Pre-readers). We employed diffusion MRI and tractography to extract fractional anisotropy (FA) along the trajectory of six bilateral intra-hemispheric tracts and two posterior subdivisions of the corpus callosum. Readers demonstrated significantly increased FA within the left anterior segment of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (aSLF-L) and the right uncinate fasciculus (UF-R) compared to Pre-readers. FA in the aSLF-L was significantly correlated with phonological awareness; FA in the UF-R was significantly correlated with language. Correlations in the UF-R but not the aSLF-L remained significant after controlling for reading ability, revealing that UF-R group differences were related to both children's language and reading abilities. Taken together, these findings demonstrate new evidence showing that individual differences in white matter structure relate to whether children have begun to read.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto CA 94303, United States.
authors.forename: Katherine E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Travis
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto CA 94303, United States.
authors.forename: Jenna N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Adams
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto CA 94303, United States.
authors.forename: Vanessa N
authors.initials: VN
authors.lastname: Kovachy
authors.affiliation: The Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.|Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel.
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ben-Shachar
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto CA 94303, United States.
authors.forename: Heidi M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Feldman
mesh_terms: D016880:Anisotropy; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003337:Corpus Callosum / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D011932:Reading; D066127:White Matter / Q000033:anatomy & histology*
keywords: Diffusion MRI; Reading development; Tractography; White matter