TY - JOUR
T1 - Failure of resting-state frontal-occipital connectivity in linking visual perception with reading fluency in Chinese children with developmental dyslexia
AU - Yang, Xiujie
AU - Zhang, Jia
AU - Lv, Yaping
AU - Wang, Fang
AU - Ding, Guosheng
AU - Zhang, Manli
AU - Meng, Xiangzhi
AU - Song, Yan
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31971039, 81371206, 31871099, and 32000757), the National Defense Basic Scientific Research Program of China (2018110B011), and the Beijing Brain Initiative of Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission (Z181100001518003). We sincerely thank the children, parents, and schools for their participation and cooperation in our study.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
PY - 2021/6
Y1 - 2021/6
N2 - It is widely accepted that impairment in visual perception impedes children?s reading development, and further studies have demonstrated significant enhancement in reading fluency after visual perceptual training. However, the mechanism of the neural linkage between visual perception and reading is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the intrinsic functional relationship between visual perception (indexed by the texture discrimination task,TDT) and reading ability (character reading and reading fluency) in Chinese children with developmental dyslexia (DD) and those with typical development (TD). The resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between the primary visual cortex (V1, BA17) and the entire brain was analyzed. In addition, how RSFC maps are associated with TDT performance and reading ability in the DD and TD groups was examined. The results demonstrated that the strength of the RSFC between V1 and the left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG, BA9/BA46) was significantly correlated with both the threshold (SOA) of the TDT and reading fluency in TD children but not in DD children. Moreover, LMFG-V1 resting-state connectivity played a mediating role in the association of visual texture discrimination and reading fluency, but not in character reading, in TD children. In contrast, this mediation was absent in DD children, albeit their strengths of RSFC between V1 and the left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG) were comparable to those for the TD group. These findings indicate that typically developing children use the linkage of the RSFC between the V1 and LMFG for visual perception skills, which in turn promote fluent reading; in contrast, children with dyslexia, who had higher TDT thresholds than TD children, could not take advantage of their frontal?occipital connectivity to improve reading fluency abilities. These findings suggest that visual perception plays an important role in reading skills and that children with developmental dyslexia lack the ability to use their frontal?occipital connectivity to link visual perception with reading fluency.
AB - It is widely accepted that impairment in visual perception impedes children?s reading development, and further studies have demonstrated significant enhancement in reading fluency after visual perceptual training. However, the mechanism of the neural linkage between visual perception and reading is unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine the intrinsic functional relationship between visual perception (indexed by the texture discrimination task,TDT) and reading ability (character reading and reading fluency) in Chinese children with developmental dyslexia (DD) and those with typical development (TD). The resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) between the primary visual cortex (V1, BA17) and the entire brain was analyzed. In addition, how RSFC maps are associated with TDT performance and reading ability in the DD and TD groups was examined. The results demonstrated that the strength of the RSFC between V1 and the left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG, BA9/BA46) was significantly correlated with both the threshold (SOA) of the TDT and reading fluency in TD children but not in DD children. Moreover, LMFG-V1 resting-state connectivity played a mediating role in the association of visual texture discrimination and reading fluency, but not in character reading, in TD children. In contrast, this mediation was absent in DD children, albeit their strengths of RSFC between V1 and the left middle frontal gyrus (LMFG) were comparable to those for the TD group. These findings indicate that typically developing children use the linkage of the RSFC between the V1 and LMFG for visual perception skills, which in turn promote fluent reading; in contrast, children with dyslexia, who had higher TDT thresholds than TD children, could not take advantage of their frontal?occipital connectivity to improve reading fluency abilities. These findings suggest that visual perception plays an important role in reading skills and that children with developmental dyslexia lack the ability to use their frontal?occipital connectivity to link visual perception with reading fluency.
KW - Texture discrimination task (TDT)
KW - Reading fluency
KW - Resting-state functional connectivity
KW - Primary visual cortex
KW - Left middle frontal gyrus
KW - Developmental dyslexia
KW - WORD FORM AREA
KW - PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS
KW - TEXTURE-DISCRIMINATION
KW - SPATIAL ATTENTION
KW - FMRI EVIDENCE
KW - BRAIN
KW - DEFICIT
KW - LANGUAGE
KW - CORTEX
KW - SKILLS
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117911
DO - 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117911
M3 - Article
C2 - 33711483
SN - 1053-8119
VL - 233
SP - 1
EP - 11
JO - Neuroimage
JF - Neuroimage
M1 - 117911
ER -