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The neural basis of hyperlexic reading: an FMRI case study.

Children with autism spectrum disorders in very rare cases display surprisingly advanced "hyperlexic" reading skills. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we studied the neural basis of this precocious reading ability in a 9-year-old hyperlexic boy who reads 6 years in advance of his age. During covert reading, he demonstrated greater activity in the left inferior frontal and superior temporal cortices than both chronological age- and reading age-matched controls. Activity in the right inferior temporal sulcus was greater when compared to reading age-matched controls. These findings suggest that precocious reading is brought about by simultaneously drawing on both left hemisphere phonological and right hemisphere visual systems, reconciling the two prevailing, but seemingly contradictory, single hemisphere theories of hyperlexia. Hyperlexic reading is therefore associated with hyperactivation of the left superior temporal cortex, much in the same way as developmental dyslexia is associated with hypoactivation of this area.

Brain↗

Cortical activity associated with vocalization and reading proper.

To determine whether motor and premotor areas are involved in silent reading, we report a positron emission tomography study on reading aloud and covert reading. The anterior insula, primary sensorimotor cortex and supplementary motor area were activated separately in reading aloud compared with covert reading, but they were not activated in covert reading compared with fixation control, nor in a conjunction involving reading aloud and covert reading, suggesting the role of articulation or vocalization.

Brain Mapping↗

Joint picture-book reading correlates of early oral language skill.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relation between joint picture-book-reading experiences provided in the home and children's early oral language skills. Subjects were 41 two-year-old children and their mothers. Measures included maternal report of the age at which she began to read to the child, the frequency of home reading sessions, the number of stories read per week, and the frequency of visits by the child to the local library. Measures of language skill used were the child's receptive and expressive scores on the revised Reynell Developmental Language Scales. Multiple regression analyses indicated that picture-book reading exposure was more strongly related to receptive than to expressive language. Age of onset of home reading routines was the most important predictor of oral language skills. Directions of effect, the importance of parental beliefs as determinants of home reading practices, and the possible existence of a threshold level for reading frequency are discussed.

Child Language↗

Lack of correlation between Sendai virus P/C mRNA structure and its utilization of two AUG start sites from alternate reading frames: implications for viral bicistronic mRNAs.

The polycistronic P/C mRNA of Sendai virus encodes five proteins (C', P, C, Y1, and Y2) each of which initiates from a distinct start site. Two major proteins, P and C, are expressed in approximately equimolar amounts from two consecutive AUGs in overlapping reading frames. To better understand the mechanism of expression of the C protein from a downstream AUG, site-directed mutants of the P/C mRNA were created and expressed in COS1 cells. The secondary structure of the mRNA was examined to determine whether the mRNA structure played any role in the synthesis of the C protein. Our results ruled out any significant involvement of the 5' UTR, sequence contexts, secondary structure, distance between the start sites, and sequences downstream to the C-AUG. However, they are consistent with the concept that the synthesis of the C protein is primarily dependent on the orientation of its reading frame, i.e., +1 in relation to the upstream P reading frame. The downstream reading frame was translated poorly when it occurred in +2 orientation in relation to the upstream reading frame. Interestingly, all the known functional bicistronic mRNAs with overlapping reading frames from cytoplasmic RNA viruses have their downstream reading frame in +1 orientation relative to the upstream frame. We propose that the evolutionary conservation of the downstream reading frame in +1 orientation in these bicistronic mRNAs is important for its efficient translation.

Base Sequence↗

Rabbit beta-globin is extended beyond its UGA stop codon by multiple suppressions and translational reading gaps.

Translational reading gaps occur when genetic information encoded in mRNA is not translated during the normal course of protein synthesis. This phenomenon has been observed thus far only in prokaryotes and is a mechanism for extending the reading frame by circumventing the normal stop codon. Reading frames of proteins may also be extended by suppression of the stop codon mediated by a suppressor tRNA. The rabbit beta-globin read-through protein, the only known, naturally occurring read-through protein in eukaryotes, was sequenced by ion trap mass spectrometry to determine how the reading frame is extended. Seven different proteolytic peptide fragments decoded by the same sequence that spans the UGA stop codon of rabbit beta-globin mRNA were detected. Three of these peptides contain translational reading gaps of one to three amino acids that correspond to the UGA stop codon site and/or one or two of the immediate downstream codons. To our knowledge, this is the first reported example of the occurrence of reading gaps in protein synthesis in eukaryotes. This event is unique in that it is associated with bypasses involving staggered lengths of untranslated information. Four of the seven peptides contain serine, tryptophan, cysteine, and arginine decoded by UGA and thus arise by suppression. Serine is donated by selenocysteine tRNA, and it, like the other tRNAs, has previously been shown to suppress UGA in vitro in mammals, but not in vivo.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

DRC: a dual route cascaded model of visual word recognition and reading aloud.

This article describes the Dual Route Cascaded (DRC) model, a computational model of visual word recognition and reading aloud. The DRC is a computational realization of the dual-route theory of reading, and is the only computational model of reading that can perform the 2 tasks most commonly used to study reading: lexical decision and reading aloud. For both tasks, the authors show that a wide variety of variables that influence human latencies influence the DRC model's latencies in exactly the same way. The DRC model simulates a number of such effects that other computational models of reading do not, but there appear to be no effects that any other current computational model of reading can simulate but that the DRC model cannot. The authors conclude that the DRC model is the most successful of the existing computational models of reading.

Dyslexia↗

Biological abnormality of impaired reading is constrained by culture.

Developmental dyslexia is characterized by a severe reading problem in people who have normal intelligence and schooling. Impaired reading of alphabetic scripts is associated with dysfunction of left temporoparietal brain regions. These regions perform phonemic analysis and conversion of written symbols to phonological units of speech (grapheme-to-phoneme conversion); two central cognitive processes that mediate reading acquisition. Furthermore, it has been assumed that, in contrast to cultural diversities, dyslexia in different languages has a universal biological origin. Here we show using functional magnetic resonance imaging with reading-impaired Chinese children and associated controls, that functional disruption of the left middle frontal gyrus is associated with impaired reading of the Chinese language (a logographic rather than alphabetic writing system). Reading impairment in Chinese is manifested by two deficits: one relating to the conversion of graphic form (orthography) to syllable, and the other concerning orthography-to-semantics mapping. Both of these processes are critically mediated by the left middle frontal gyrus, which functions as a centre for fluent Chinese reading that coordinates and integrates various information about written characters in verbal and spatial working memory. This finding provides an insight into the fundamental pathophysiology of dyslexia by suggesting that rather than having a universal origin, the biological abnormality of impaired reading is dependent on culture.

Asian People↗

The effect of coloured filters on the rate of reading in an adult student population.

Meares-Irlen Syndrome is characterised by visual stress (visual discomfort) and visual perceptual distortions that can be alleviated by individually prescribed coloured filters. The benefit from coloured filters can be demonstrated with the Wilkins Rate of Reading Test (WRRT). Previous research using individually prescribed coloured overlays (sheets of plastic placed on a page) found that between one-fifth and one-third of unselected school-children show a significant (> 5%) improvement in their rate of reading with their chosen overlay. This 5% cut-off has good sensitivity and specificity for predicting those children who will continue to voluntarily use their overlay for a sustained period. Previous research has concentrated on children, and we sought to investigate the immediate effect of overlays on rate of reading in an adult population. Subjects were 113 unselected university students who answered a symptom questionnaire and were tested with the Wilkins Intuitive Overlays and WRRT. Some symptoms were common: 73% reported sore or tired eyes when reading and 40% reported four to 12 headaches a year. One hundred of the subjects chose an overlay as improving their immediate perception of text. These subjects were significantly more likely to report perceptual distortions and visual discomfort on viewing text than subjects who did not choose an overlay. The 100 subjects read 3.8% faster with the overlay than without any overlay (p < 0.00001), whereas the 13 subjects who did not choose an overlay read 1.7% slower with a placebo overlay than without (p = 0.37). Of the subjects who chose an overlay, 38% read more than 5% faster with the overlay and 2% read more than 25% faster. These results are comparable with those obtained for children. We conclude that Meares-Irlen Syndrome is likely to be as common in adults as it is in children.

Adolescent↗

The role of visual and auditory temporal processing in reading irregular and nonsense words.

In the present study, the role of rapid visual and auditory temporal processing in reading irregular and nonsense words was investigated with a group of normal readers. One hundred and five undergraduates participated in various visual and auditory temporal-processing tasks. Readers who primarily adopted the phonological route in reading (nonsense-word readers) showed a trend for better auditory temporal resolution but readers who primarily adopted sight word skills (irregular-word readers) did not exhibit better visual temporal resolution. Both the correlation and stepwise multiple-regression analyses, however, revealed a relationship between visual temporal processing and irregular-word reading as well as a relationship between auditory temporal processing and nonsense-word reading. The results support the involvement of visual and auditory processing in reading irregular and nonsense words respectively, and were discussed with respect to recent findings that only dyslexics with phonological impairment will display temporal deficits. Further, the temporal measures were not effective discriminants for the reading groups, suggesting a lack of association between reading ability and the choice of reading strategy.

Adolescent↗

Brain activity during reading. The effects of exposure duration and task.

Brain activity during reading tasks was investigated using PET. The aim was to account for differences in the results of two previous studies [those of Petersen et al. (Science 1990; 249: 1041-4) and Howard et al. (Brain 1992; 115: 1769-82)] by systematically varying the type of reading task and the exposure duration of the word stimuli. Both variables strongly influenced patterns of brain activity. There were three types of task: (i) reading aloud; (ii) reading silently; and (iii) lexical decision on visually presented words and pseudowords. Reading aloud and reading silently engaged the left middle and superior temporal regions, confirming the important role of these areas in visual word processing. The areas principally engaged during lexical decision were the left inferior and middle frontal cortices and the supplementary motor area; activity in these areas suggests that the subjects were using a phonological strategy to perform the task. There was also a significant effect of exposure duration, with activity being greater for short (150 ms) exposure durations than for long (1000 ms or 981 ms) exposure durations. We conclude that until we understand how subtle variations in experimental design influence brain activity during reading tasks, the association of specific processing functions with individual anatomical areas activated during reading is premature.

Adult↗

Monocular occlusion can improve binocular control and reading in dyslexics.

Developmental dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental condition which causes 5-10% of children to have unexpected difficulty learning to read. Many dyslexics have impaired development of the magnocellular component of the visual system, which is important for timing visual events and controlling eye movements. Poor control of eye movement may lead to unstable binocular fixation, and hence unsteady vision; this could explain why many dyslexics report that letters appear to move around, causing visual confusion. Previous research has suggested that such binocular confusion can be permanently alleviated by temporarily occluding one eye. The aim of the present study was therefore to assess the binocular control and reading progress of dyslexic children with initially unstable binocular control after the left eye was patched. One hundred and forty-three dyslexics were studied. They were selected from children aged 7-11 years referred to a learning disabilities clinic if they were dyslexic and had unstable binocular control. They were randomly assigned to wear yellow spectacles with or without the left lens occluded, and were followed for 9 months. Significantly more of the children who were given occlusion gained stable binocular fixation in the first 3 months (59%) compared with children given the unoccluded glasses (36%). This advantage was independent of IQ or initial reading ability. Furthermore, at all the 3-month follow-ups, children were more likely to have gained stable binocular control if they had been wearing the occluded glasses. Gaining stable binocular control significantly improved reading. The children who did so with the help of occlusion improved their reading by 9.4 months in the first 3 months, compared with 3.9 months in those who were not patched and did not gain stable fixation. Over the whole 9 months, children who received occlusion and gained stable fixation nearly doubled their rate of progress in reading compared with those who remained unstable. At all the follow-ups the reading of those given occlusion was significantly better than that of those not occluded. Thus monocular occlusion helped children with unstable binocular control to gain good binocular fixation. If they gained stability, they made significantly faster reading progress. The progress made by the children who gained stable fixation was much greater than that achieved with other remedial techniques.

Child↗

Essential role of the right superior parietal cortex in Japanese kana mirror reading: An fMRI study.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the neural substrates responsible for Japanese kana mirror reading. Japanese kana words, arranged vertically from top to bottom, were used in the mirror reading task in 10 normal right-handed Japanese adults. Since both mirror-reversed and normally oriented kana items are read in the same (top to bottom) direction, it was possible to minimize the oculomotor effects which often occur in the process of mirror reading of alphabetical language. By using the SPM96 random effect analysis method, a significant increase in the blood oxygen level-dependent signal during mirror reading relative to normal reading was detected in multiple brain regions, including the bilateral superior occipital gyri, bilateral middle occipital gyri corresponding to Brodmann area (BA) 18/19, bilateral lingual gyri (BA 19), left inferior occipital gyrus (BA 18), left inferior temporal cortex (BA 37), bilateral fusiform gyri (BA 19), right superior parietal cortex (SPC) (BA 7), left inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44/45) and an inferior part of the left BA 6. In addition to these cortical regions, the right caudate nucleus and right cerebellum were also activated. The activation found in the right SPC and the left inferior temporal region is consistent with the hypothesis that mirror reading involves both the dorsal visuospatial and ventral object recognition pathways. In particular, a significant correlation was found between the fMRI signal change in the right SPC and the behavioural performance (error index) in the task. This may reflect increased demand on the right SPC for the spatial transformation which is required for the accurate recognition of mirror-reversed kana items. This relationship between the haemodynamic response in a specific brain area and the behavioural data provides new evidence for the essential role of the right SPC in Japanese kana mirror reading.

Adult↗

Do people with schizophrenia comprehend what they read?

Although people with schizophrenia appear to be able to read aloud, their reading comprehension has been little tested. This study asks, Do people with schizophrenia have deficits in reading comprehension compared with well controls and, if so, what are the type and severity of those deficits? The reading comprehension of 30 people with chronic schizophrenia was compared with a group of 30 people without a psychiatric diagnosis. The groups were matched for sex and age and had similar intelligence scores. The Reading Comprehension Battery for Aphasia (RCBA) was used to obtain a profile of reading comprehension skills, and intelligence was estimated using the National Adult Reading Test. Schizophrenia subjects took significantly longer to complete the RCBA and obtained significantly poorer scores than did controls on the RCBA total and on all but one RCBA subtest. Although these findings could have serious implications for the presentation of written material such as consent and information forms, further research is needed to determine how these deficits impact on functional reading and whether or not they can be addressed.

Adolescent↗

Efficiencies of translation in three reading frames of unusual non-ORF sequences isolated from phage display.

An unusual nucleotide sequence, called H10, was previously isolated by biopanning with a random peptide library on filamentous phage. The sequence encoded a peptide that bound to the growth hormone binding protein. Despite the fact that the H10 sequence can be expressed in Escherichia coli as a fusion to the gene III minor coat protein of the M13 phage, the sequence contained two TGA stop codons in the zero frame. Several mutant derivatives of the H10 sequence carried not only a stop codon, but also showed frameshifts, either +1 or -1 in individual isolates, between the H10 start and the gene III sequences. In this work, we have subcloned the H10 sequence and three of its derivatives (one requiring a +1 reading frameshift for expression, one requiring a -1 reading frameshift, and one open reading frame) in gene fusions to a reporter beta-galactosidase gene. These sequences have been cloned in all three reading frames relative to the reporter. The non-open reading frame constructs gave (surprisingly) high expression of the reporter (10-40% of control vector expression levels) in two out of the three frames. A site-directed mutant of the TGA stop codon (to TTA) in the +1 shifter greatly reduced the frameshift and gave expression primarily in the zero frame. By contrast, a site-directed mutant of the TGA in the -1 shifter had little effect on the pattern of expression, and alteration of the first TGA (of two) in H10 itself paradoxically reduced expression by half. We believe these phenomena to reflect a translational recoding mechanism in which ribosomes switch reading frames or read past stop codons upon encountering a signal encoded in the nucleotide sequence of the mRNA, because both the open reading frame derivative (which has six nucleotide changes from parental H10) and the site-directed mutant of the +1 shifter, primarily expressed the reporter only in the zero frame.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

Visual performance and reading capacity of partially sighted persons in a rehabilitation center.

Visual acuity and reading performance of 178 partially sighted patients from a rehabilitation center were measured using a TV text display device. A linear relation was demonstrated between visual acuity and reading speed for patients with visual acuity values below 15% of the normal value. With respect to reading performance, three groups of partially sighted patients could be distinguished: (1) 25% of the patients are unable to read visually and require tactile reading aids; (2) 50% are partially sighted and require high-magnification electronic reading aids; (3) 25% can read normal text by using optical magnifying devices. There is evidence that reading performance is related to the nature of the underlying ocular problem, such as refractive anomalies, macular degeneration, or other diseases.

Adolescent↗

Developing visual and reading efficiency in older adults.

The authors hypothesized that adults, ages 62 to 75 years, who are in good health for their age can be trained to read more efficiently using approaches similar to those reported for younger individuals. Recruited successively from the State College of Optometry's primary care clinic, the subjects were 20 volunteers who had minimum corrected Snellen visual acuity of at least 6/9 (20/30) at distance and near, no oculomotor anomalies, and no significant ocular diseases such as diabetic retinitis. After a reading efficiency pretest using the Eye-trac, an infrared eye-movement recording device, the subjects were assigned to either a control group or a reading efficiency training group. Those in the control group were tested again after the control period. All subjects were retested after experimental intervention that consisted of rapid visual processing, oculomotor, and Guided Reading training. The results revealed a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in all aspects of reading efficiency, including reduced number of fixations and regressions per 100 words, increased average span of recognition, and improved reading rate without loss of comprehension, only in those who received training. Our recommendation is that training in reading efficiency should be stressed to a greater extent in reading, educational, and vision therapy programs at all age levels.

Aged↗

Visual predictors of reading performance in kindergarten and first grade children.

PURPOSE: A masked investigation of the relation between performance on various vision tests and reading was conducted with 90 kindergartners (mean age 5.73 years) and 91 first graders (mean age 6.76 years) from a middle class, suburban, elementary school near Cleveland, Ohio. METHODS: Vision testing included the Modified Clinical Technique (MCT), +/- 2.00 D flipper lenses with red/green suppression check for accommodative facility, and Randot for stereoacuity. Reading performance was independently evaluated with the Metropolitan Achievement Test 6 Reading Test and teachers' assessments. RESULTS: The results revealed that accommodative facility was predictive of successful reading performance in 7-year-olds (p = 0.0431), first graders (p = 0.0125), and in the entire subject group when age (p = 0.0254) or grade (p = 0.0224) was controlled. Failure on the MCT was significantly associated with decreased reading skill in 5-year-olds (p = 0.0431). In addition, stereoacuity worse than 100 sec arc (p = 0.0316), MCT failure plus stereoacuity worse than 50 sec arc (p = 0.0316), and accommodative facility (p 0.0155) were predictive of whether children of average intelligence would show successful or unsuccessful reading ability. CONCLUSIONS: Thus, visual performance was significantly related to reading performance even in children of average intelligence when IQ was partially controlled. Also, the predictive value of the MCT for reading achievement could be improved by the addition of a referral criterion for stereoacuity. This would make the results of MCT screening more readily applicable to educators.

Accommodation, Ocular↗

Psychophysics of reading. XVII. Low-vision performance with four types of electronically magnified text.

Most people with low vision need magnification to read. Page navigation is the process of moving a magnifier during reading. Modern electronic technology can provide many alternatives for navigating through text. This study compared reading speeds for four methods of displaying text. The four methods varied in their page-navigation demands. The closed-circuit television (CCTV) and MOUSE methods involved manual navigation. The DRIFT method (horizontally drifting text) involved no manual navigation, but did involve both smooth-pursuit and saccadic eye movements. The rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) method involved no manual navigation, and relatively few eye movements. There were 7 normal subjects and 12 low-vision subjects (7 with central-field loss, CFL group, and 5 with central fields intact, CFI group). The subjects read 70-word passages at speeds that yielded good comprehension. Taking the CCTV reading speed as a benchmark, neither the normal nor low-vision subjects had significantly different speeds with the MOUSE method. As expected from the reduced navigational demands, normal subjects read faster with the DRIFT method (85% faster) and the RSVP method (169%). The CFI group read significantly faster with DRIFT (43%) and RSVP (38%). The CFL group showed no significant differences in reading speed for the four methods.

Adolescent↗