We have formulated a developmental neuro-cognitive model of lexical processing in normal readers based on cross-sectional functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and we have collected our first longitudinal data on these children 2 years after their initial assessment. The proposed grant will longitudinally follow normal children (7- to 17- year-olds) and children with reading disorders (11- to 15-year-olds) when they perform a variety of tasks. These tasks include orthographic (spelling), phonological (rhyming) and semantic (meaning) judgments in the visual and auditory modalities. Not only is this proposal innovative because we use a variety of tasks, but we also have multiple perceptual controls and multiple parametric manipulations of difficulty, so we can more effectively examine developmental and group effects specific to aspects of lexical processing. Furthermore, our paradigms allow an examination of priming and lexical effects (e.g. word frequency, phonological consistency and orthographic consistency) so observed developmental and group differences are not likely to be due to specific characteristics of the tasks. The overall aim of this study is to determine whether different groups have different developmental trajectories. A longitudinal design is crucial to rule out cohort effects and to examine the predictability of the individual's subsequent brain development from their earlier reading skill and brain activation patterns. In addition to examining whether higher and lower skill normal readers have different developmental trajectories, we will examine whether dyslexic readers with specific deficits in decoding orthographic stimuli have different developmental trajectories from language-impaired readers with deficits in decoding orthographic stimuli in addition to general language processing deficits. We will also compare children with disorders to age-match versus reading-match normal readers to address the question of developmental delay versus deviance. Our general hypothesis is that individual differences in brain activation between readers will increase with age. This will be tested using hierarchical linear modeling to examine growth curves in the rate of change (e.g. slope) and in the shape of change (e.g. acceleration). We will use this technique to look at developmental changes in signal intensity in our critical regions of interest, but also for changes in effective connectivity using Dynamic Causal Modeling (DCM).

Public Health Relevance

This proposal will give us basic information about how the brains of typical children change throughout childhood and adolescence during reading and language processing, but also how the brains of children with reading and language disorders differ in their development. The relevance of this grant to biomedical issues is that it has implications for diagnosis and intervention in children with reading and language disorders.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD042049-06
Application #
7599650
Study Section
Language and Communication Study Section (LCOM)
Program Officer
Miller, Brett
Project Start
2002-01-01
Project End
2013-03-31
Budget Start
2009-04-01
Budget End
2010-03-31
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2009
Total Cost
$555,039
Indirect Cost
Name
Northwestern University at Chicago
Department
Other Health Professions
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
160079455
City
Evanston
State
IL
Country
United States
Zip Code
60201
Weiss, Yael; Booth, James R (2017) Neural correlates of the lexicality effect in children. Brain Lang 175:64-70
Wise Younger, Jessica; Tucker-Drob, Elliot; Booth, James R (2017) Longitudinal changes in reading network connectivity related to skill improvement. Neuroimage 158:90-98
Gullick, Margaret M; Demir-Lira, Özlem Ece; Booth, James R (2016) Reading skill-fractional anisotropy relationships in visuospatial tracts diverge depending on socioeconomic status. Dev Sci 19:673-85
Lee, Shu-Hui; Booth, James R; Chou, Tai-Li (2016) Temporo-parietal connectivity uniquely predicts reading change from childhood to adolescence. Neuroimage 142:126-134
Lee, Shu-Hui; Booth, James R; Chou, Tai-Li (2015) Developmental changes in the neural influence of sublexical information on semantic processing. Neuropsychologia 73:25-34
Gullick, Margaret M; Booth, James R (2015) The direct segment of the arcuate fasciculus is predictive of longitudinal reading change. Dev Cogn Neurosci 13:68-74
McNorgan, Chris; Chabal, Sarah; O'Young, Daniel et al. (2015) Task dependent lexicality effects support interactive models of reading: a meta-analytic neuroimaging review. Neuropsychologia 67:148-58
McNorgan, Chris; Booth, James R (2015) Skill dependent audiovisual integration in the fusiform induces repetition suppression. Brain Lang 141:110-23
Brennan, Christine; Booth, James R (2015) Large grain instruction and phonological awareness skill influence rime sensitivity, processing speed, and early decoding skill in adult L2 learners. Read Writ 28:917-938
Cao, Fan; Brennan, Christine; Booth, James R (2015) The brain adapts to orthography with experience: evidence from English and Chinese. Dev Sci 18:785-98

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