DEVELOPMENT OF SKILLED READING: FMRI STUDIES

描述(由申请者提供)：这项建议侧重于拼写和语音过程的神经基础，这些过程必须在阅读技能的发展获得中得到磨练。随着年轻读者获得书写文字的经验，这些过程中的变化会随着发展而出现。在行为上，成年人表现出处理优势(即更快的速度和/或准确性)，在儿童中不那么明显，对于字母而不是视觉上类似字母的物体，对于合法字母串而不是非字母串或非法字母串。这一处理优势表明，不断增加的经验使读者能够提取有关构成字母和单词的视觉特征的特定拼写信息。总之，大量的证据表明，语音加工为阅读发展提供了重要的支持，而且它与正字法加工的相互作用随着技能的发展而变化。关于阅读技能的发展习得如何与大脑中假定的正字法和语音处理区域相关的信息，应该为理解典型(和非典型)阅读发展提供重要的神经生物学基础，并为未来更有针对性的教育和补救策略提供信息。第一个特定的目标验证了这样一个假设，即随着阅读技能的发展，大脑的视觉处理区域将显示出越来越专业化的趋势。第二个特定的目标检验了这样的假设，即随着阅读技能和正字法专业化程度的提高，对语音加工机制的依赖程度会降低。第三个具体目的是使用功能连接性磁共振成像和图论分析来表征成人和儿童阅读网络的发展差异。其他拟议的分析包括一组受试者在五年期间重复扫描的纵向部分，使用结合稳定的阅读/认知技能测量与成像和扫描仪性能参数的多变量方法探索个体差异，以及探索发育性别差异。与公共健康相关：这项建议侧重于拼写和语音过程的神经基础，这些过程必须在阅读技能的发展获得中得到磨练。关于阅读技能的发展习得如何与大脑中假定的正字法和语音处理区域相关的信息，应该为理解典型(和非典型)阅读发展提供重要的神经生物学基础，这些基本知识可以用于指导更有针对性的未来教育和补救策略。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal focuses on neural substrates of orthographic and phonological processes that must be honed in the developmental acquisition of reading skill. Changes in these processes emerge through development as a young reader gains experience with written words. Behaviorally, adults show processing advantages (i.e. increased speed and/or accuracy), less evident in children, for letters over visually similar letter-like objects, and for legal letter strings over non-letter strings or illegal letter strings. This processing advantage suggests that increasing experience enables a reader to extract specific, orthographic information about the visual features that form letters and words. In concert, extensive evidence suggests that phonological processing provides important support for reading development, and that its interplay with orthographic processes varies as skill develops. Information about how the developmental acquisition of reading expertise relates to putative orthographic and phonological processing regions in the brain should provide an important neurobiological foundation for understanding typical (and atypical) reading development, and inform more targeted future education and remediation strategies. The first specific aim tests the hypothesis that visual processing regions of the brain will show increasing specialization with the developmental acquisition of reading skill. The second specific aim tests the hypothesis that concomitant with increasing reading skill and orthographic specialization comes decreasing reliance on phonological processing mechanisms. The third specific aim uses functional connectivity MRI and graph theory analysis to characterize developmental differences in reading networks between adults and children. Additional proposed analyses include a longitudinal component where a cohort of subjects have repeated scans over a five year period, exploration of individual differences using a multivariate approach combining stable measures of reading/cognitive skill with imaging and in-scanner performance parameters, and an exploration of developmental sex differences. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This proposal focuses on neural substrates of orthographic and phonological processes that must be honed in the developmental acquisition of reading skill. Information about how the developmental acquisition of reading expertise relates to putative orthographic and phonological processing regions in the brain should provide an important neurobiological foundation for understanding typical (and atypical) reading development, and this basic knowledge can be used to inform more targeted future education and remediation strategies.