Although many children acquire reading skills rapidly with some formal training, for others, learning to read is the most difficult challenges they face in the first few years at school. The reasons for these large individual differences in skill acquisition are still obscure, with the relative contribution of biological and environmental factors vigorously debated. Although it is well established that deaf individuals may experience particular difficulty learning to read, the neural basis of this phenomenon is obscure. We propose a series of integrated studies combining behavioral measures with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate the neurobiological basis of phonological basis of phonological processing and reading in deaf and hearing children. Deaf children, drawn from a group that uses ASL, will be compared to a group of hearing children matched for chronological and reading age. The results will expand our understanding of reading disability resulting from altered sensory experience. In the second phase of the study, half of the deaf children will be studied again after acquisition of another communication system, which should result in better access to the phonological code of language, Cued Speech. This communication system can be considered a signed version of spoken English and, unlike ASL, contains phonological information. By learning Cued Speech, children will gain visual access to phonetic information, providing them with the skills crucial for successful reading of English. Comparisons of brain correlates of reading after the acquisition of Cued Speech will be made with control groups of deaf children that do not learn how to utilize Cued Speech. A better understanding of how deaf individuals gain access to phonological information and are able to read more efficiently may provide new insights into the compensatory mechanisms available to compensate for the effects of reading disability may provide important new information leading to the development of more effective language instruction and intervention programs for both deaf and hearing individuals with reading disabilities.
| Turesky, Ted K; Olulade, Olumide A; Luetje, Megan M et al. (2018) An fMRI study of finger tapping in children and adults. Hum Brain Mapp 39:3203-3215 |
| Taylor, C M; Olulade, O A; Luetje, M M et al. (2018) An fMRI study of coherent visual motion processing in children and adults. Neuroimage 173:223-239 |
| Evans, Tanya M; Flowers, D Lynn; Luetje, Megan M et al. (2016) Functional neuroanatomy of arithmetic and word reading and its relationship to age. Neuroimage 143:304-315 |
| Olulade, O A; Flowers, D L; Napoliello, E M et al. (2015) Dyslexic children lack word selectivity gradients in occipito-temporal and inferior frontal cortex. Neuroimage Clin 7:742-54 |
| Olulade, Olumide A; Koo, Daniel S; LaSasso, Carol J et al. (2014) Neuroanatomical profiles of deafness in the context of native language experience. J Neurosci 34:5613-20 |
| Evans, Tanya M; Flowers, D Lynn; Napoliello, Eileen M et al. (2014) Sex-specific gray matter volume differences in females with developmental dyslexia. Brain Struct Funct 219:1041-54 |
| Evans, Tanya M; Flowers, D Lynn; Napoliello, Eileen M et al. (2014) The functional anatomy of single-digit arithmetic in children with developmental dyslexia. Neuroimage 101:644-52 |
| Krafnick, Anthony J; Flowers, D Lynn; Luetje, Megan M et al. (2014) An investigation into the origin of anatomical differences in dyslexia. J Neurosci 34:901-8 |
| Olulade, Olumide A; Flowers, D Lynn; Napoliello, Eileen M et al. (2013) Developmental differences for word processing in the ventral stream. Brain Lang 125:134-45 |
| Olulade, Olumide A; Napoliello, Eileen M; Eden, Guinevere F (2013) Abnormal visual motion processing is not a cause of dyslexia. Neuron 79:180-90 |
Showing the most recent 10 out of 30 publications
