Investigating the neural dynamics of single-word reading in deaf readers

 描述（由申请人提供）：阅读是一个基本的重要技能，在我们的社会。对于识字的成年人来说，阅读书面文字通常是很容易的。然而，并不是所有的人都能发展这种能力，并且有终身的阅读困难。对于聋哑人来说尤其如此。尽管在过去的50多年里，为确定和改善聋人阅读困难的原因做出了相当大的努力，但聋人的平均阅读水平仍然保持在三年级和四年级之间。聋人必须学会阅读一种他们听不见的语言，他们这样做的成功率参差不齐。导致聋人熟练阅读的因素目前正在辩论中，并没有得到很好的理解。本研究的主要目的是探讨听障阅读者在文字阅读过程中的神经动力学。为了描述熟练和不熟练的聋人读者的正字法和语音代码的性质，我们将研究神经解剖学底物的特异性和视觉单词识别的时间过程。我们建议将功能磁共振成像和脑电图联合收割机（在单独的实验中）研究聋人读者的神经动力学，以a）确定聋人读者的贫乏语音表征如何影响阅读的神经特异性，B）表征聋人读者的正字法和语音神经表征的性质，以及c）识别视觉单词识别中的正字法和语音成分的电生理标记，并且如果/他们在熟练和不熟练的聋人读者中的差异。在这个项目中提出的技术提供了一个创新的和强大的方式来检查神经动力学的单个单词阅读在熟练和不熟练的聋人读者。这项工作与公共卫生的相关性在于它直接关注有阅读困难史的成年聋人的阅读研究。通过确定影响（和不影响）阅读过程的因素，该项目可以为聋人识字教学和阅读补救的教育模式提供信息。由于阅读技能对社会和经济成功至关重要，该项目的成果有可能通过帮助提高聋人的识字率而造福整个社会。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Reading is a fundamentally important skill in our society. For the literate adult, reading written words generally comes with ease. However, not all people develop this ability, and have life long troubles reading. This is especially true for the deaf population. Despite considerable efforts to identify and ameliorate the cause(s) of reading difficulties in deaf readers over the past 50+ years, the average reading level in deaf people continues to remain between the third and fourth grade. Deaf people must learn to read a language that they cannot hear, and they do so with variable success. The factors that lead to skilled reading for deaf individuals are currently under debate and not well understood. The major aim of this project is to examine the neural dynamics of word reading in skilled and less skilled deaf readers. In order to characterize the nature of orthographic and phonological codes for skilled and less-skilled deaf readers, we will examine the specificity of the neuroanatomical substrates and the time-course of visual word recognition. We propose to combine fMRI and EEG (in separate experiments) to study the neural dynamics in deaf readers to a) determine how impoverished phonological representations in deaf readers impact the neural specificity of reading, b) characterize the nature of orthographic and phonological neural representations in deaf readers, and c) identify the electrophysiological markers of orthographic and phonological components in visual word recognition and if/how they differ in skilled vs. less skilled deaf readers. The techniques proposed in this project provide an innovative and powerful way to examine the neural dynamics of single word reading in skilled and less skilled deaf readers. The relevance of this work for public health lies in its direct focus on the study of reading in deaf adults who have a known history of reading difficulties. By identifying factors that do (and do not) affect reading processes, this project can inform educational models of literacy instruction and reading remediation for deaf individuals. As reading skill is critical for social and economic success, the results of the project have the potential to benefit society as a whole by helping to improve literacy outcomes for deaf people.