Diagnostic Imaging
May 2003

OVERREAD

Functional MRI charts successful dyslexia therapy

Physicians may be able to "rewire" portions of the brain in children with dyslexia by training the children to hear the sounds in words, according to researchers in the neuroscience program at Stanford University.

While functional neuroimaging has been used to illustrate deficits in the neural mechanisms responsible for phonological processing in children and adults with dyslexia, the investigators in this study sought to document physiological changes that may occur after behavioral training to correct the dyslexia.

Dr. John Gabrieli and colleagues used fMRI to document phonological processing in 20 children with dyslexia before and after a treatment program focused on auditory processing and oral language training.

The training improved oral language and reading performance, and fMRI evidence indicated that the children showed increased activity in multiple brain areas, including the left temporal-parietal cortex, the left inferior frontal gyrus, the right hemisphere frontal and temporal regions, and the anterior cingulate gyrus. The study was published in the March 4 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Increased activity in additional areas of the brain was documented in the children's scans, providing evidence that the dyslexics' brains may have been exhibiting a compensatory process as the children learned to read more fluently, the researchers reported.

The study results indicate how different reading programs provide varying methods to help children overcome the problems they have with reading, according to Gabrieli.

These increases in brain activity brought the affected regions in the dyslexic children closer to those seen in children who read normally, according to the researchers.