|
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||
Research on the dyslexic brain, using up to date scanning technology, is now more notable than it was ten to fifteen years ago. The available results show that dyslexia is a brain-based, neurological, genetic disorder; it is not a myth, and not due to poor teaching or laziness. One study by a team from the University of Washington found that “dyslexics were using 4.6 times as much area of the brain to do the same language task as the controls. This means their brains were working a lot harder and using more energy.” Most of this activity took place in the left frontal lobe of the brain.
Science Daily (Oct. 6th 1999)
Interdisciplinary team of the University of Washington
A study by Dr Fumiko Hoeft et al from Stanford University, California and Pittsburg University, Pennsylvania, using for the first time, combined structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging, produced some interesting findings.
The study was undertaken with 30 children: 10 dyslexic children and two groups of 10 controls :
- one group of 10, age-matched children
- one group of 10, reading-matched children
When compared to the age matched children, the dyslexic children showed increased activation in the frontal cortex but decreased activation in the parieto-temporal region at the back of the brain. This would be the expected difference between mature and immature readers. When compared to the younger reading-matched group, activity was found in similar regions of the frontal cortex. But the active neural pathways were noticeably different in each group.
Dr. Hoeft felt that the findings showed that different interventions or training would be needed to help dyslexics, as intense traditional education may not be enough to repair the damage. “We show that children with dyslexia are not just reading several years behind like young skilled learner readers, but show neural pathways that are specific to dyslexia”
Dr. F Hoeft, Proceedings of the National Academy of Scientists (2007)
Roger Highfield, Daily Telegraph (Feb. 2007)
