Neural Basis of Language Processing

孩子们似乎可以毫不费力地学习口语，而阅读学习在整个学校里发展得很慢，需要明确的指导和训练。尽管孩子们获得这项复杂技能的难易程度各不相同，但对大多数人来说，阅读最终会成为自然而然的事情。本研究通过评估神经认知语言网络随着阅读技能的发展而发生的变化，来考察阅读的神经基础。我们假设，为了支持阅读，语言网络发生了实质性的重组，而口语识别过程中的拼写访问(即印刷词访问)是这一点的标志。 这笔探索基金将资助温尼伯大学阅读和语言实验室发展项目的艾米·德罗斯奇博士和她的研究团队。我们的研究采用多模式方法，使用事件相关电位(ERPs)和功能磁共振成像(FMRI)来研究阅读发展的神经机制。这组研究将在四个组中监测口语单词识别过程中对拼写相似的神经反应：成年人、学龄期好读者、初学者和学龄前儿童。这项工作的具体目的是分离出支持阅读的神经机制。我们将研究随着阅读技能的发展，语言网络如何改变以适应阅读。这一结果对发育性阅读障碍的诊断和治疗具有广泛的意义，发育性阅读障碍是北美最普遍的学习障碍。

Whereas children learn spoken language seemingly effortlessly, learning to read develops slowly through the school years and requires explicit instruction and training. Although children vary in the ease with which they acquire this complex skill, reading eventually becomes automatic for most individuals. The present proposal examines the neural basis of reading, by evaluating the changes that undergo the neurocognitive language network with the development of reading skill. We hypothesize that substantial restructuring of the language network occurs to support reading, and that orthographic access (i.e., printed word access) during spoken word recognition is a marker of this. This Discovery Grant will fund Dr. Amy Desroches and her research team in the Development of Reading and Language Laboratory at the University of Winnipeg. Our research takes a multi-modal approach, examining the neural mechanisms underlying reading development using both event-related potentials (ERPs) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). This collection of studies will monitor neural responses to orthographic similarity during spoken word recognition in four groups: adults, school-aged good readers, beginning readers, and preschoolers. The specific aim of this work is to isolate the neural mechanisms that develop to support reading. We will examine how the language network changes to accommodate reading as reading-skill develops. The results have broad implications for the diagnosis and treatment of developmental dyslexia, the most prevalent learning disorder in North America.