The relationship between phonological and auditory processing and brain organization in beginning readers

Brain Lang. 2013 May;125(2):173-83. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2012.04.004. Epub 2012 May 7.

Abstract

We employed brain-behavior analyses to explore the relationship between performance on tasks measuring phonological awareness, pseudoword decoding, and rapid auditory processing (all predictors of reading (dis)ability) and brain organization for print and speech in beginning readers. For print-related activation, we observed a shared set of skill-correlated regions, including left hemisphere temporoparietal and occipitotemporal sites, as well as inferior frontal, visual, visual attention, and subcortical components. For speech-related activation, shared variance among reading skill measures was most prominently correlated with activation in left hemisphere inferior frontal gyrus and precuneus. Implications for brain-based models of literacy acquisition are discussed.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Awareness / physiology
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Brain Mapping
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Photic Stimulation / methods
  • Psychomotor Performance / physiology
  • Reading*
  • Speech / physiology*
  • Speech Perception / physiology*
  • Visual Perception / physiology*