title: Neural initialization of audiovisual integration in prereaders at varying risk for developmental dyslexia.
abstract: Learning letter-speech sound correspondences is a major step in reading acquisition and is severely impaired in children with dyslexia. Up to now, it remains largely unknown how quickly neural networks adopt specific functions during audiovisual integration of linguistic information when prereading children learn letter-speech sound correspondences. Here, we simulated the process of learning letter-speech sound correspondences in 20 prereading children (6.13-7.17 years) at varying risk for dyslexia by training artificial letter-speech sound correspondences within a single experimental session. Subsequently, we acquired simultaneously event-related potentials (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans during implicit audiovisual presentation of trained and untrained pairs. Audiovisual integration of trained pairs correlated with individual learning rates in right superior temporal, left inferior temporal, and bilateral parietal areas and with phonological awareness in left temporal areas. In correspondence, a differential left-lateralized parietooccipitotemporal ERP at 400 ms for trained pairs correlated with learning achievement and familial risk. Finally, a late (650 ms) posterior negativity indicating audiovisual congruency of trained pairs was associated with increased fMRI activation in the left occipital cortex. Taken together, a short (<30 min) letter-speech sound training initializes audiovisual integration in neural systems that are responsible for processing linguistic information in proficient readers. To conclude, the ability to learn grapheme-phoneme correspondences, the familial history of reading disability, and phonological awareness of prereading children account for the degree of audiovisual integration in a distributed brain network. Such findings on emerging linguistic audiovisual integration could allow for distinguishing between children with typical and atypical reading development. Hum Brain Mapp 38:1038-1055, 2017. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Switzerland.|University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Neuroscience Center Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Iliana
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: I Karipidis
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Switzerland.|University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Neuroscience Center Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Georgette
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pleisch
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Röthlisberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hofstetter
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dornbierer
authors.affiliation: MR-Center of the University Hospital for Psychiatry, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stämpfli
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Switzerland.|University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Neuroscience Center Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brem
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen
keywords: audiovisual integration; congruency; development; dyslexia; electroencephalography; functional magnetic resonance imaging; letter acquisition; neuroimaging; prereading children