Poster #14 - Emerging Functional Connectivity of the Reading Brain

• In Event: 1-169 - Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Section - Biological Processes: Neuroscience and Genetics

Integrative Statement

Learning to read builds upon existing neural systems for language, visual processing, and attention. Recent research has suggested that brain responses for visual word recognition, particularly in the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA), are rapidly transformed over the first few months of schooling as children gain increased knowledge of letter-sound correspondences (Dehaene-Lambertz, Monzalvo, & Dehaene, 2018). Yet, despite this remarkably fast specialization, it still takes years of practice and repetition to fine-tune the connections between the different brain regions required for fluent reading. How does this VWFA connectivity for reading emerge in kindergarteners?

68 kindergarteners in the United States (mean age = 5.8 years old) completed a single word reading task during fMRI neuroimaging. We conducted psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analyses from an a priori VWFA seed region, revealing extensive connectivity with an adult-like network of left lateralized language regions: bilateral inferior and middle frontal gyri, as well as clusters in the left STG/MTG, and parietal lobe (Fig 1A; p < .001, k > FDR cluster threshold). We further probed the relationship between the strength of connectivity and children’s language and literacy abilities by extracting the PPI values from these clusters (Fig 1B). The degree of connectivity between the VWFA and each region of interest corresponded with distinct reading-related skills. While greater MFG-VWFA connectivity was related to stronger oral language skills, greater IFG-VWFA connectivity was related to decoding ability (see Table 1).

Our results offer first time evidence that five-year-old emergent readers show adult-like connectivity between the VWFA and critical reading regions. . Furthermore, we see evidence of neural specialization for different language and literacy skills in kindergarteners who have just begun to learn to read. Future studies will explore how differences in connectivity at age five may explain future literacy skills and reading growth.

Authors

• Rebecca Marks, University of Michigan
  Presenting Author

• Fumiko Hoeft, University of Connecticut
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ioulia Kovelman, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author