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Han Y, Jing Y, Shi Y, Mo H, Wan Y, Zhou H, Deng F. The role of language-related functional brain regions and white matter tracts in network plasticity of post-stroke aphasia. J Neurol 2024; 271:3095-3115. [PMID: 38607432 DOI: 10.1007/s00415-024-12358-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2024] [Revised: 03/26/2024] [Accepted: 03/27/2024] [Indexed: 04/13/2024]
Abstract
The neural mechanisms underlying language recovery after a stroke remain controversial. This review aimed to summarize the plasticity and reorganization mechanisms of the language network through neuroimaging studies. Initially, we discussed the involvement of right language homologues, perilesional tissue, and domain-general networks. Subsequently, we summarized the white matter functional mapping and remodeling mechanisms associated with language subskills. Finally, we explored how non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) promoted language recovery by inducing neural network plasticity. It was observed that the recruitment of right hemisphere language area homologues played a pivotal role in the early stages of frontal post-stroke aphasia (PSA), particularly in patients with larger lesions. Perilesional plasticity correlated with improved speech performance and prognosis. The domain-general networks could respond to increased "effort" in a task-dependent manner from the top-down when the downstream language network was impaired. Fluency, repetition, comprehension, naming, and reading skills exhibited overlapping and unique dual-pathway functional mapping models. In the acute phase, the structural remodeling of white matter tracts became challenging, with recovery predominantly dependent on cortical activation. Similar to the pattern of cortical activation, during the subacute and chronic phases, improvements in language functions depended, respectively, on the remodeling of right white matter tracts and the restoration of left-lateralized language structural network patterns. Moreover, the midline superior frontal gyrus/dorsal anterior cingulate cortex emerged as a promising target for NIBS. These findings offered theoretical insights for the early personalized treatment of aphasia after stroke.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yue Han
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Yuanyuan Jing
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Yanmin Shi
- Health Management (Physical Examination) Center, The Second Norman Bethune Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Hongbin Mo
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Yafei Wan
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China
| | - Hongwei Zhou
- Department of Radiology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
| | - Fang Deng
- Department of Neurology, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
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2
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Vandecruys F, Vandermosten M, De Smedt B. The inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus correlates with early precursors of mathematics and reading before the start of formal schooling. Cortex 2024; 174:149-163. [PMID: 38547813 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2024.02.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/05/2023] [Revised: 12/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/13/2024] [Indexed: 04/21/2024]
Abstract
Diffusion-weighted imaging studies in preschoolers have almost exclusively been done in the field of reading. As a result, virtually nothing is known about white matter tracts associated with individual differences in mathematics at this age. Studying the preschoolers' brain is crucial because it allows us to identify individual differences in brain anatomy without influences of formal mathematics and reading instruction. To fill this gap, we investigated for the first time before the start of formal school entry the associations between white matter tracts and precursors of mathematics and reading simultaneously. We also investigated whether these associations were specific to mathematics and to reading, or not. We focused on four bilateral white matter tracts (arcuate fasciculus (direct, anterior), inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, inferior longitudinal fasciculus), which have been previously correlated with mathematical performance in older children and with reading performance in children of a similar age as the current study. Participants were 56 5-year-old children (Mage = 67 months; SD = 1.8), none of which received formal instruction. Our results showed an association between the bilateral inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus and precursors of mathematics (numerical ordering, numeral knowledge) and reading (phonological awareness, letter knowledge). Follow-up regression analyses revealed that the associations found with the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus were neither specific to mathematics nor specific to reading. These findings suggest that, already before the start of formal schooling, the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus might be related to the neural overlap between mathematics and reading. This overlap potentially reflects one of their many shared mechanisms, such as the reliance on phonological codes or the processing of visual symbols, and these mechanisms should be exploited in future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Floor Vandecruys
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, KU Leuven, Belgium; Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium.
| | - Maaike Vandermosten
- Experimental ORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Belgium; Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium.
| | - Bert De Smedt
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, KU Leuven, Belgium; Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium.
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3
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Bonte M, Brem S. Unraveling individual differences in learning potential: A dynamic framework for the case of reading development. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2024; 66:101362. [PMID: 38447471 PMCID: PMC10925938 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101362] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/06/2023] [Revised: 02/02/2024] [Accepted: 03/01/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024] Open
Abstract
Children show an enormous capacity to learn during development, but with large individual differences in the time course and trajectory of learning and the achieved skill level. Recent progress in developmental sciences has shown the contribution of a multitude of factors including genetic variation, brain plasticity, socio-cultural context and learning experiences to individual development. These factors interact in a complex manner, producing children's idiosyncratic and heterogeneous learning paths. Despite an increasing recognition of these intricate dynamics, current research on the development of culturally acquired skills such as reading still has a typical focus on snapshots of children's performance at discrete points in time. Here we argue that this 'static' approach is often insufficient and limits advancements in the prediction and mechanistic understanding of individual differences in learning capacity. We present a dynamic framework which highlights the importance of capturing short-term trajectories during learning across multiple stages and processes as a proxy for long-term development on the example of reading. This framework will help explain relevant variability in children's learning paths and outcomes and fosters new perspectives and approaches to study how children develop and learn.
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Affiliation(s)
- Milene Bonte
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience and Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
| | - Silvia Brem
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland; URPP Adaptive Brain Circuits in Development and Learning (AdaBD), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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4
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Ghasoub M, Perdue M, Long X, Donnici C, Dewey D, Lebel C. Structural neural connectivity correlates with pre-reading abilities in preschool children. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2024; 65:101332. [PMID: 38171053 PMCID: PMC10793080 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101332] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2023] [Revised: 11/24/2023] [Accepted: 12/18/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Pre-reading abilities are predictive of later reading ability and can be assessed before reading begins. However, the neural correlates of pre-reading abilities in young children are not fully understood. To address this, we examined 246 datasets collected in an accelerated longitudinal design from 81 children aged 2-6 years (age = 4.6 ± 0.98 years, 47 males). Children completed pre-reading assessments (NEPSY-II Phonological Processing and Speeded Naming) and underwent a diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan to assess white matter connectivity. We defined a core neural network of reading and language regions based on prior literature, and structural connections within this network were assessed using graph theory analysis. Linear mixed models accounting for repeated measures were used to test associations between children's pre-reading performance and graph theory measures for the whole bilateral reading network and each hemisphere separately. Phonological Processing scores were positively associated with global efficiency, local efficiency, and clustering coefficient in the bilateral and right hemisphere networks, as well as local efficiency and clustering coefficient in the left hemisphere network. Our findings provide further evidence that structural neural correlates of Phonological Processing emerge in early childhood, before and during early reading instruction.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mohammad Ghasoub
- Cumming School of Medicine, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Canada
| | - Meaghan Perdue
- Cumming School of Medicine, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Canada; Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Canada
| | - Xiangyu Long
- Cumming School of Medicine, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Canada; Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Canada
| | | | - Deborah Dewey
- Cumming School of Medicine, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Canada; Department of Pediatrics, University of Calgary, Canada; Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary, Canada
| | - Catherine Lebel
- Cumming School of Medicine, Canada; Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Canada; Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute, Canada; Department of Radiology, University of Calgary, Canada.
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5
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Dȩbska A, Wójcik M, Chyl K, Dziȩgiel-Fivet G, Jednoróg K. Beyond the Visual Word Form Area - a cognitive characterization of the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex. Front Hum Neurosci 2023; 17:1199366. [PMID: 37576470 PMCID: PMC10416454 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1199366] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2023] [Accepted: 07/10/2023] [Indexed: 08/15/2023] Open
Abstract
The left ventral occipitotemporal cortex has been traditionally viewed as a pathway for visual object recognition including written letters and words. Its crucial role in reading was strengthened by the studies on the functionally localized "Visual Word Form Area" responsible for processing word-like information. However, in the past 20 years, empirical studies have challenged the assumptions of this brain region as processing exclusively visual or even orthographic stimuli. In this review, we aimed to present the development of understanding of the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex from the visually based letter area to the modality-independent symbolic language related region. We discuss theoretical and empirical research that includes orthographic, phonological, and semantic properties of language. Existing results showed that involvement of the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex is not limited to unimodal activity but also includes multimodal processes. The idea of the integrative nature of this region is supported by the broad functional and structural connectivity with language-related and attentional brain networks. We conclude that although the function of the area is not yet fully understood in human cognition, its role goes beyond visual word form processing. The left ventral occipitotemporal cortex seems to be crucial for combining higher-level language information with abstract forms that convey meaning independently of modality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Agnieszka Dȩbska
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Marta Wójcik
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Katarzyna Chyl
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
- The Educational Research Institute, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Gabriela Dziȩgiel-Fivet
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Katarzyna Jednoróg
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
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6
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Cross AM, Lammert JM, Peters L, Frijters JC, Ansari D, Steinbach KA, Lovett MW, Archibald LMD, Joanisse MF. White matter correlates of reading subskills in children with and without reading disability. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2023; 241:105270. [PMID: 37141728 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2023.105270] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2022] [Revised: 03/31/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2023] [Indexed: 05/06/2023]
Abstract
Individual differences in reading ability are associated with characteristics of white matter microstructure in the brain. However, previous studies have largely measured reading as a single construct, resulting in difficulty characterizing the role of structural connectivity in discrete subskills of reading. The present study used diffusion tensor imaging to examine how white matter microstructure, measured by fractional anisotropy (FA), relates to individual differences in reading subskills in children aged 8 to 14 (n = 65). Findings showed positive correlations between FA of the left arcuate fasciculus and measures of single word reading and rapid naming abilities. Negative correlations were observed between FA of the right inferior longitudinal fasciculus and bilateral uncinate fasciculi, and reading subskills, particularly reading comprehension. The results suggest that although reading subskills rely to some extent on shared tracts, there are also distinct characteristics of white matter microstructure supporting different components of reading ability in children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra M Cross
- Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada; Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada; School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.
| | - Jessica M Lammert
- Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada; Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | - Lien Peters
- Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada; Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | - Jan C Frijters
- Child and Youth Studies, Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada
| | - Daniel Ansari
- Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada; Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | | | - Maureen W Lovett
- The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), Toronto, Canada; Paediatrics and Medical Sciences, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada
| | - Lisa M D Archibald
- Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada; Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada; School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada; Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada
| | - Marc F Joanisse
- Brain and Mind Institute, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada; Department of Psychology, The University of Western Ontario, London, Canada; Haskins Laboratories, New Haven CT, USA
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7
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Shekari E, Nozari N. A narrative review of the anatomy and function of the white matter tracts in language production and comprehension. Front Hum Neurosci 2023; 17:1139292. [PMID: 37051488 PMCID: PMC10083342 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2023.1139292] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2023] [Accepted: 02/24/2023] [Indexed: 03/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Much is known about the role of cortical areas in language processing. The shift towards network approaches in recent years has highlighted the importance of uncovering the role of white matter in connecting these areas. However, despite a large body of research, many of these tracts’ functions are not well-understood. We present a comprehensive review of the empirical evidence on the role of eight major tracts that are hypothesized to be involved in language processing (inferior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, uncinate fasciculus, extreme capsule, middle longitudinal fasciculus, superior longitudinal fasciculus, arcuate fasciculus, and frontal aslant tract). For each tract, we hypothesize its role based on the function of the cortical regions it connects. We then evaluate these hypotheses with data from three sources: studies in neurotypical individuals, neuropsychological data, and intraoperative stimulation studies. Finally, we summarize the conclusions supported by the data and highlight the areas needing further investigation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ehsan Shekari
- Department of Neuroscience, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
| | - Nazbanou Nozari
- Department of Psychology, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States
- Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC), Pittsburgh, PA, United States
- *Correspondence: Nazbanou Nozari
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8
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Huber E, Corrigan NM, Yarnykh VL, Ferjan Ramírez N, Kuhl PK. Language Experience during Infancy Predicts White Matter Myelination at Age 2 Years. J Neurosci 2023; 43:1590-1599. [PMID: 36746626 PMCID: PMC10008053 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1043-22.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2022] [Revised: 01/06/2023] [Accepted: 01/06/2023] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Parental input is considered a key predictor of language achievement during the first years of life, yet relatively few studies have assessed the effects of parental language input and parent-infant interactions on early brain development. We examined the relationship between measures of parent and child language, obtained from naturalistic home recordings at child ages 6, 10, 14, 18, and 24 months, and estimates of white matter myelination, derived from quantitative MRI at age 2 years (mean = 26.30 months, SD = 1.62, N = 22). Analysis of the white matter focused on dorsal pathways associated with expressive language development and long-term language ability, namely, the left arcuate fasciculus (AF) and superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF). Frequency of parent-infant conversational turns (CT) uniquely predicted myelin density estimates in both the AF and SLF. Moreover, the effect of CT remained significant while controlling for total adult speech and child speech-related utterances, suggesting a specific role for interactive language experience, rather than simply speech exposure or production. An exploratory analysis of 18 additional tracts, including the right AF and SLF, indicated a high degree of anatomic specificity. Longitudinal analyses of parent and child language variables indicated an effect of CT as early as 6 months of age, as well as an ongoing effect over infancy. Together, these results link parent-infant conversational turns to white matter myelination at age 2 years, and suggest that early, interactive experiences with language uniquely contribute to the development of white matter associated with long-term language ability.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Children's earliest experiences with language are thought to have profound and lasting developmental effects. Recent studies suggest that intervention can increase the quality of parental language input and improve children's learning outcomes. However, important questions remain about the optimal timing of intervention, and the relationship between specific aspects of language experience and brain development. We report that parent-infant turn-taking during home language interactions correlates with myelination of language related white matter pathways through age 2 years. Effects were independent of total speech exposure and infant vocalizations and evident starting at 6 months of age, suggesting that structured language interactions throughout infancy may uniquely support the ongoing development of brain systems critical to long-term language ability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth Huber
- Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
- Department of Speech & Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
| | - Neva M Corrigan
- Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
- Department of Speech & Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
| | - Vasily L Yarnykh
- Department of Radiology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
| | - Naja Ferjan Ramírez
- Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
- Department of Linguistics, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
| | - Patricia K Kuhl
- Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
- Department of Speech & Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98195
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9
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Di Pietro SV, Willinger D, Frei N, Lutz C, Coraj S, Schneider C, Stämpfli P, Brem S. Disentangling influences of dyslexia, development, and reading experience on effective brain connectivity in children. Neuroimage 2023; 268:119869. [PMID: 36639004 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2023.119869] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2022] [Revised: 12/29/2022] [Accepted: 01/09/2023] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Altered brain connectivity between regions of the reading network has been associated with reading difficulties. However, it remains unclear whether connectivity differences between children with dyslexia (DYS) and those with typical reading skills (TR) are specific to reading impairments or to reading experience. In this functional MRI study, 132 children (M = 10.06 y, SD = 1.46) performed a phonological lexical decision task. We aimed to disentangle (1) disorder-specific from (2) experience-related differences in effective connectivity and to (3) characterize the development of DYS and TR. We applied dynamic causal modeling to age-matched (ndys = 25, nTR = 35) and reading-level-matched (ndys = 25, nTR = 22) groups. Developmental effects were assessed in beginning and advanced readers (TR: nbeg = 48, nadv = 35, DYS: nbeg = 24, nadv = 25). We show that altered feedback connectivity between the inferior parietal lobule and the visual word form area (VWFA) during print processing can be specifically attributed to reading impairments, because these alterations were found in DYS compared to both the age-matched and reading-level-matched TR. In contrast, feedforward connectivity from the VWFA to parietal and frontal regions characterized experience in TR and increased with age and reading skill. These directed connectivity findings pinpoint disorder-specific and experience-dependent alterations in the brain's reading network.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah V Di Pietro
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland; URPP Adaptive Brain Circuits in Development and Learning (AdaBD), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - David Willinger
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland; Department of Psychology and Psychodynamics, Karl Landsteiner University of Health Sciences, Krems an der Donau, Austria
| | - Nada Frei
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Christina Lutz
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Seline Coraj
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Chiara Schneider
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Philipp Stämpfli
- MR-Center of the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics and the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Silvia Brem
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital of Psychiatry Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland; URPP Adaptive Brain Circuits in Development and Learning (AdaBD), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; MR-Center of the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics and the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
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10
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Meisler SL, Gabrieli JDE. Fiber-specific structural properties relate to reading skills in children and adolescents. eLife 2022; 11:e82088. [PMID: 36576253 PMCID: PMC9815823 DOI: 10.7554/elife.82088] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2022] [Accepted: 12/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent studies suggest that the cross-sectional relationship between reading skills and white matter microstructure, as indexed by fractional anisotropy, is not as robust as previously thought. Fixel-based analyses yield fiber-specific micro- and macrostructural measures, overcoming several shortcomings of the traditional diffusion tensor model. We ran a whole-brain analysis investigating whether the product of fiber density and cross-section (FDC) related to single-word reading skills in a large, open, quality-controlled dataset of 983 children and adolescents ages 6-18. We also compared FDC between participants with (n = 102) and without (n = 570) reading disabilities. We found that FDC positively related to reading skills throughout the brain, especially in left temporoparietal and cerebellar white matter, but did not differ between reading proficiency groups. Exploratory analyses revealed that among metrics from other diffusion models - diffusion tensor imaging, diffusion kurtosis imaging, and neurite orientation dispersion and density imaging - only the orientation dispersion and neurite density indexes from NODDI were associated (inversely) with reading skills. The present findings further support the importance of left-hemisphere dorsal temporoparietal white matter tracts in reading. Additionally, these results suggest that future DWI studies of reading and dyslexia should be designed to benefit from advanced diffusion models, include cerebellar coverage, and consider continuous analyses that account for individual differences in reading skill.
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Affiliation(s)
- Steven Lee Meisler
- Program in Speech and Hearing Bioscience and Technology, Harvard Medical SchoolBostonUnited States
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11
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Forkel SJ, Labache L, Nachev P, Thiebaut de Schotten M, Hesling I. Stroke disconnectome decodes reading networks. Brain Struct Funct 2022; 227:2897-2908. [PMID: 36192557 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-022-02575-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/11/2022] [Accepted: 09/19/2022] [Indexed: 12/31/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive functional neuroimaging has been around for over 30 years and has shed light on the brain areas relevant for reading. However, new methodological developments enable mapping the interaction between functional imaging and the underlying white matter networks. In this study, we used such a novel method, called the disconnectome, to decode the reading circuitry in the brain. We used the resulting disconnection patterns to predict a typical lesion that would lead to reading deficits after brain damage. Our results suggest that white matter connections critical for reading include fronto-parietal U-shaped fibres and the vertical occipital fasciculus (VOF). The lesion most predictive of a reading deficit would impinge on the left temporal, occipital, and inferior parietal gyri. This novel framework can systematically be applied to bridge the gap between the neuropathology of language and cognitive neuroscience.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie J Forkel
- Brain Connectivity and Behaviour Laboratory, Sorbonne Universities, Paris, France. .,Donders Centre for Cognition, Radboud University, Thomas van Aquinostraat 4, 6525 GD, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. .,Department of Neuroimaging, Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK. .,Department of Neurosurgery, Technical University of Munich School of Medicine, Munich, Germany.
| | - Loïc Labache
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA
| | - Parashkev Nachev
- UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, Queen Square, London, WC1N 3GB, UK
| | - Michel Thiebaut de Schotten
- Brain Connectivity and Behaviour Laboratory, Sorbonne Universities, Paris, France.,Groupe d'Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle, Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives-UMR 5293, CNRS, CEA University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
| | - Isabelle Hesling
- Groupe d'Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle, Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives-UMR 5293, CNRS, CEA University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
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12
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Yu X, Dunstan J, Jacobson SW, Molteno CD, Lindinger NM, Turesky TK, Meintjes EM, Jacobson JL, Gaab N. Distinctive neural correlates of phonological and reading impairment in fetal alcohol-exposed adolescents with and without facial dysmorphology. Neuropsychologia 2022; 169:108188. [PMID: 35218791 PMCID: PMC9922095 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108188] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/26/2021] [Revised: 11/26/2021] [Accepted: 02/21/2022] [Indexed: 01/25/2023]
Abstract
Prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE) has been linked to atypical brain and cognitive development, including poor academic performance in reading. This study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging and diffusion tensor imaging to characterize functional and structural mechanisms mediating reading deficits in 26 adolescents with PAE-related facial dysmorphology (fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS)/partial FAS (PFAS)), 29 heavily-exposed (HE) non-syndromal adolescents, in comparison with 19 typically developing controls. The FAS/PFAS and HE groups were balanced in terms of levels of PAE and reading (dis)ability. While neural alterations in the posterior association cortices were evident in both PAE groups, distinctive neural correlates of reading (dis)abilities were observed between adolescents with and without facial dysmorphology. Specifically, compared to the HE and control groups, the syndromal adolescents showed greater activation in the right precentral gyrus during phonological processing and rightward lateralization in an important reading-related tract (inferior longitudinal fasciculus, ILF), suggesting an atypical reliance on the right hemisphere. By contrast, in the HE, better reading skills were positively correlated with neural activation in the left angular gyrus and white matter organization of the left ILF, although the brain function-behavior relation was weaker than among the controls, suggesting less efficient function of the typical reading network. Our findings provide converging evidence at both the neural functional and structural levels for distinctive brain mechanisms underlying atypical reading and phonological processing in PAE adolescents with and without facial dysmorphology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xi Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China; Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, MA, 02115, USA.
| | - Jade Dunstan
- Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Sandra W Jacobson
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, 48201, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa; Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa
| | - Christopher D Molteno
- Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa
| | - Nadine M Lindinger
- Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa
| | - Ted K Turesky
- Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, MA, 02115, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA
| | - Ernesta M Meintjes
- Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa
| | - Joseph L Jacobson
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI, 48201, USA; Department of Human Biology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 7701, South Africa.
| | - Nadine Gaab
- Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, MA, 02115, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, 02115, USA; Harvard Graduate School of Education, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA.
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13
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Brignoni-Pérez E, Dubner SE, Ben-Shachar M, Berman S, Mezer AA, Feldman HM, Travis KE. White matter properties underlying reading abilities differ in 8-year-old children born full term and preterm: A multi-modal approach. Neuroimage 2022; 256:119240. [PMID: 35490913 PMCID: PMC9213558 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119240] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2021] [Revised: 04/18/2022] [Accepted: 04/20/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Many diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) studies document associations between reading skills and fractional anisotropy (FA) within brain white matter, suggesting that efficient transfer of information across the brain contributes to individual differences in reading. Use of complementary imaging methods can determine if these associations relate to myelin content of white matter tracts. Compared to children born at term (FT), children born preterm (PT) are at risk for reading deficits. We used two MRI methods to calculate associations of reading and white matter properties in FT and PT children. Participants (N=79: 36 FT and 43 PT) were administered the Gray's Oral Reading Test at age 8. We segmented three dorsal (left arcuate and bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculus) and four ventral (bilateral inferior longitudinal fasciculus and bilateral uncinate) tracts and quantified (1) FA from dMRI and (2) R1 from quantitative T1 relaxometry. We examined correlations between reading scores and these metrics along the trajectories of the tracts. Reading positively correlated with FA in segments of left arcuate and bilateral superior longitudinal fasciculi in FT children; no FA associations were found in PT children. Reading positively correlated with R1 in segments of the left superior longitudinal, right uncinate, and left inferior longitudinal fasciculi in PT children; no R1 associations were found in FT children. Birth group significantly moderated the associations of reading and white matter metrics. Myelin content of white matter may contribute to individual differences in PT but not FT children.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edith Brignoni-Pérez
- Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, 3145 Porter Drive, MC 5395, Palo Alto, CA 94304, United States; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California, United States
| | - Sarah E Dubner
- Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, 3145 Porter Drive, MC 5395, Palo Alto, CA 94304, United States
| | - Michal Ben-Shachar
- The Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel; Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
| | - Shai Berman
- Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Aviv A Mezer
- Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Heidi M Feldman
- Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, 3145 Porter Drive, MC 5395, Palo Alto, CA 94304, United States
| | - Katherine E Travis
- Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, 3145 Porter Drive, MC 5395, Palo Alto, CA 94304, United States.
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14
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Economou M, Billiet T, Wouters J, Ghesquière P, Vanderauwera J, Vandermosten M. Myelin water fraction in relation to fractional anisotropy and reading in 10-year-old children. Brain Struct Funct 2022; 227:2209-2217. [PMID: 35403895 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-022-02486-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2021] [Accepted: 03/24/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Diffusion-weighted imaging studies have repeatedly shown that white matter correlates with reading throughout development. However, the neurobiological interpretation of this relationship is constrained by the limited microstructural specificity of diffusion imaging. A critical component of white matter microstructure is myelin, which can be investigated noninvasively using MRI. Here, we examined the link between myelin water fraction (MWF) and reading ability in 10-year-old children (n = 69). To better understand this relationship, we additionally investigated how these two variables relate to fractional anisotropy (FA; a common index of diffusion-weighted imaging). Our analysis revealed that lower MWF coheres with better reading scores in left-hemispheric tracts relevant for reading. While we replicated previous reports on a positive relationship between FA and MWF, we did not find any evidence for an association between reading and FA. Together, these findings contrast previous research suggesting that poor reading abilities might be rooted in lower myelination and emphasize the need for further longitudinal research to understand how this relationship evolves throughout reading development. Altogether, this study contributes important insights into the role of myelin-related processes in the relationship between reading and white matter structure.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maria Economou
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, 3000, Leuven, Belgium.
- Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
| | - Thibo Billiet
- Icometrix, Research and Development, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jan Wouters
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, 3000, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Pol Ghesquière
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, 3000, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jolijn Vanderauwera
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, 3000, Leuven, Belgium
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, 3000, Leuven, Belgium
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
- Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Maaike Vandermosten
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, 3000, Leuven, Belgium
- Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
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15
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Cheema K, Sweneya S, Craig J, Huynh T, Ostevik AV, Reed A, Cummine J. An investigation of white matter properties as they relate to spelling behaviour in skilled and impaired readers. Neuropsychol Rehabil 2022:1-29. [PMID: 35323090 DOI: 10.1080/09602011.2022.2053168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
Abstract
RESULTS While the inferior longitudinal fasciculus was more strongly related to spelling behaviour in skilled adults, the uncinate fasciculus was more strongly related to spelling behaviour in impaired adults. We found strong left lateralization of the arcuate fasciculus and inferior longitudinal fasciculus in both groups. However, lateralization of the inferior frontal occipital fasciculus was more strongly related to spelling response time behaviour in skilled adults, whereas lateralization of the uncinate fasciculus was more strongly related to spelling accuracy behaviour in the impaired adults. CONCLUSION This study provides some useful information for understanding the underlying white matter pathways that support spelling in skilled and impaired adults and underscore the advantage of adopting multiple spelling tasks and outcomes (i.e., response time and accuracy) to better characterize brain-behaviour relationships in skilled and impaired adults.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kulpreet Cheema
- Department of Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.,Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Sarah Sweneya
- Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Julia Craig
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.,Faculty of Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Truc Huynh
- Faculty of Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Amberley V Ostevik
- Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Alesha Reed
- Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Jacqueline Cummine
- Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.,Department of Communications Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
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16
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OUP accepted manuscript. Cereb Cortex 2022; 32:4684-4697. [DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab510] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2021] [Revised: 12/13/2021] [Accepted: 12/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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17
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Catani M. The connectional anatomy of the temporal lobe. HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL NEUROLOGY 2022; 187:3-16. [PMID: 35964979 DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-12-823493-8.00001-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
The idea of a temporal lobe separated from the rest of the hemisphere by reason of its unique structural and functional properties is a clinically useful artifact. While the temporal lobe can be safely defined as the portion of the cerebrum lodged in the middle cranial fossa, the pattern of its connections is a more revealing description of its functional subdivisions and specific contribution to higher cognitive functions. This chapter provides an historical overview of the anatomy of the temporal lobe and an updated framework of temporal lobe connections based on tractography studies of human and nonhuman primates and patients with brain disorders. Compared to monkeys, the human temporal lobe shows a relatively increased connectivity with perisylvian frontal and parietal regions and a set of unique intrinsic connections, which may have supported the evolution of working memory, semantic representation, and language in our species. Conversely, the decreased volume of the anterior (limbic) interhemispheric temporal connections in humans is related to a reduced reliance on olfaction and a partial transference of functions from the anterior commissure to the posterior corpus callosum. Overall the novel data from tractography suggest a revision of current dual stream models for visual and auditory processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Catani
- Natbrainlab, Department of Forensic and Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, London, United Kingdom; Department of Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, London, United Kingdom.
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18
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White matter variability, cognition, and disorders: a systematic review. Brain Struct Funct 2021; 227:529-544. [PMID: 34731328 PMCID: PMC8844174 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-021-02382-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2021] [Accepted: 09/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Inter-individual differences can inform treatment procedures and—if accounted for—have the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes. However, when studying brain anatomy, these inter-individual variations are commonly unaccounted for, despite reports of differences in gross anatomical features, cross-sectional, and connectional anatomy. Brain connections are essential to facilitate functional organization and, when severed, cause impairments or complete loss of function. Hence, the study of cerebral white matter may be an ideal compromise to capture inter-individual variability in structure and function. We reviewed the wealth of studies that associate cognitive functions and clinical symptoms with individual tracts using diffusion tractography. Our systematic review indicates that tractography has proven to be a sensitive method in neurology, psychiatry, and healthy populations to identify variability and its functional correlates. However, the literature may be biased, as the most commonly studied tracts are not necessarily those with the highest sensitivity to cognitive functions and pathologies. Additionally, the hemisphere of the studied tract is often unreported, thus neglecting functional laterality and asymmetries. Finally, we demonstrate that tracts, as we define them, are not correlated with one, but multiple cognitive domains or pathologies. While our systematic review identified some methodological caveats, it also suggests that tract–function correlations might still be a promising tool in identifying biomarkers for precision medicine. They can characterize variations in brain anatomy, differences in functional organization, and predicts resilience and recovery in patients.
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19
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Brain-behavior dynamics between the left fusiform and reading. Brain Struct Funct 2021; 227:587-597. [PMID: 34510280 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-021-02372-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/27/2021] [Accepted: 08/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
The visual word form area (VWFA) plays a significant role in the development of reading skills. However, the developmental course and anatomical properties of the VWFA have only limitedly been investigated. The aim of the current longitudinal MRI study was to investigate dynamic, bidirectional relations between reading, and the structure of the left fusiform gyrus at the early-to-advanced reading stage. More specifically, by means of bivariate correlations and a cross-lagged panel model (CLPM), the interrelations between the size of the left fusiform gyrus and reading skills (an average score of a word and pseudo-word reading task) were studied in a longitudinal cohort of 43 Flemish children (29M, 14F) with variable reading skills in grade 2 (the early stage of reading) and grade 5 (the advanced stage of reading) of primary school. Results revealed that better reading skills at grade 2 lead to a larger size of the left fusiform gyrus at grade 5, whereas there are no directional effects between the size of the left fusiform gyrus at grade 2 and reading skills at grade 5. Hence, according to our results, there is behavior-driven brain plasticity and no brain-driven reading change between the early and advanced stage of reading. Together with pre-reading brain studies showing predictive relations to later reading scores, our results suggest that the direction of brain-behavioral influences changes throughout the course of reading development.
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20
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Huber E, Mezer A, Yeatman JD. Neurobiological underpinnings of rapid white matter plasticity during intensive reading instruction. Neuroimage 2021; 243:118453. [PMID: 34358657 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2019] [Revised: 07/24/2021] [Accepted: 08/03/2021] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Diffusion MRI is a powerful tool for imaging brain structure, but it is challenging to discern the biological underpinnings of plasticity inferred from these and other non-invasive MR measurements. Biophysical modeling of the diffusion signal aims to render a more biologically rich image of tissue microstructure, but the application of these models comes with important caveats. A separate approach for gaining biological specificity has been to seek converging evidence from multi-modal datasets. Here we use metrics derived from diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI) and the white matter tract integrity (WMTI) model along with quantitative MRI measurements of T1 relaxation to characterize changes throughout the white matter during an 8-week, intensive reading intervention (160 total hours of instruction). Behavioral measures, multi-shell diffusion MRI data, and quantitative T1 data were collected at regular intervals during the intervention in a group of 33 children with reading difficulties (7-12 years old), and over the same period in an age-matched non-intervention control group. Throughout the white matter, mean 'extra-axonal' diffusivity was inversely related to intervention time. In contrast, model estimated axonal water fraction (AWF), overall diffusion kurtosis, and T1 relaxation time showed no significant change over the intervention period. Both diffusion and quantitative T1 based metrics were correlated with pre-intervention reading performance, albeit with distinct anatomical distributions. These results are consistent with the view that rapid changes in diffusion properties reflect phenomena other than widespread changes in myelin density. We discuss this result in light of recent work highlighting non-axonal factors in experience-dependent plasticity and learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth Huber
- Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences and Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
| | - Aviv Mezer
- Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | - Jason D Yeatman
- Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 95305, USA
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21
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Weiller C, Reisert M, Peto I, Hennig J, Makris N, Petrides M, Rijntjes M, Egger K. The ventral pathway of the human brain: A continuous association tract system. Neuroimage 2021; 234:117977. [PMID: 33757905 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.117977] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2020] [Revised: 02/24/2021] [Accepted: 03/16/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022] Open
Abstract
The brain hemispheres can be divided into an upper dorsal and a lower ventral system. Each system consists of distinct cortical regions connected via long association tracts. The tracts cross the central sulcus or the limen insulae to connect the frontal lobe with the posterior brain. The dorsal stream is associated with sensorimotor mapping. The ventral stream serves structural analysis and semantics in different domains, as visual, acoustic or space processing. How does the prefrontal cortex, regarded as the platform for the highest level of integration, incorporate information from these different domains? In the current view, the ventral pathway consists of several separate tracts, related to different modalities. Originally the assumption was that the ventral path is a continuum, covering all modalities. The latter would imply a very different anatomical basis for cognitive and clinical models of processing. To further define the ventral connections, we used cutting-edge in vivo global tractography on high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data from 100 normal subjects from the human connectome project and ex vivo preparation of fiber bundles in the extreme capsule of 8 humans using the Klingler technique. Our data showed that ventral stream tracts, traversing through the extreme capsule, form a continuous band of fibers that fan out anteriorly to the prefrontal cortex, and posteriorly to temporal, occipital and parietal cortical regions. Introduction of additional volumes of interest in temporal and occipital lobes differentiated between the inferior fronto-occipital fascicle (IFOF) and uncinate fascicle (UF). Unequivocally, in both experiments, in all subjects a connection between the inferior frontal and middle-to-posterior temporal cortical region, otherwise known as the temporo-frontal extreme capsule fascicle (ECF) from nonhuman primate brain-tracing experiments was identified. In the human brain, this tract connects the language domains of "Broca's area" and "Wernicke's area". The differentiation in the three tracts, IFOF, UF and ECF seems arbitrary, all three pass through the extreme capsule. Our data show that the ventral pathway represents a continuum. The three tracts merge seamlessly and streamlines showed considerable overlap in their anterior and posterior course. Terminal maps identified prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobe and association cortex in temporal, occipital and parietal lobes as streamline endings. This anatomical substrate potentially facilitates the prefrontal cortex to integrate information across different domains and modalities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cornelius Weiller
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Breisacher Str. 64, 79106 Freiburg, Germany.
| | - Marco Reisert
- Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Ivo Peto
- Department of Neuroradiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany; Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine, Tampa, FL, USA
| | - Jürgen Hennig
- Department of Medical Physics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
| | - Nikos Makris
- Center for Morphometric Analysis, Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Psychiatric Neuroimaging Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Michael Petrides
- Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
| | - Michel Rijntjes
- Department of Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Breisacher Str. 64, 79106 Freiburg, Germany
| | - Karl Egger
- Department of Neuroradiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany
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22
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Yan X, Perkins K, Cao F. A hierarchical deficit model of reading disability: Evidence from dynamic causal modelling analysis. Neuropsychologia 2021; 154:107777. [PMID: 33549584 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2021.107777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2020] [Revised: 02/01/2021] [Accepted: 02/03/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Abstract
Deficits have been documented in visuo-orthographic processing as well as phonological retrieval/manipulation during visual word reading in individuals with reading disability (RD); however, the relationship between these deficits remains unclear. Previously, we found that during word reading, visuo-orthographic deficit appears to be a neural signature of RD, but deficits in phonological retrieval/manipulation appears to be a consequence of being RD (Cao et al., 2020). Therefore, in the current study, we directly tested the hypothesis that during visual word reading, deficit in phonological retrieval/manipulation may result from weakened input from visuo-orthographic regions, and that this relationship tends to be universal across languages. We conducted a dynamic causal modelling analysis of fMRI data from Chinese-English bilingual children (9-11 years, N = 78) with or without RD during a visual word rhyming judgment task. We found a weaker connection from the left inferior temporal gyrus (ITG) to the left dorsal inferior frontal gyrus (dIFG) in children with RD and reading controls than the connection found in age controls for both Chinese and English. This finding suggests that the phonological deficit at the dIFG may result from weak input from the visuo-orthographic region and this connection appears to be responsive to reading level rather than RD, because the reading-control children were similar to children with RD. We also found that the left ITG was selectively connected with language-specific regions (i.e., the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL) for Chinese and the left ventral inferior frontal gyrus (vIFG) for English) depending on the language being processed; however, this language selectivity was reduced in children with RD, suggesting that decreased language specialization is associated with RD. Using a double control design, our study suggests that during reading, the visuo-orthographic deficit of RD constrains the development of the connection from orthography to phonology and to other language-specific processing due to distorted quantity and quality of reading.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaohui Yan
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, China
| | | | - Fan Cao
- Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, China.
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23
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Chyl K, Fraga-González G, Brem S, Jednoróg K. Brain dynamics of (a)typical reading development-a review of longitudinal studies. NPJ SCIENCE OF LEARNING 2021; 6:4. [PMID: 33526791 PMCID: PMC7851393 DOI: 10.1038/s41539-020-00081-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2020] [Accepted: 12/07/2020] [Indexed: 05/17/2023]
Abstract
Literacy development is a process rather than a single event and thus should be studied at multiple time points. A longitudinal design employing neuroimaging methods offers the possibility to identify neural changes associated with reading development, and to reveal early markers of dyslexia. The core of this review is a summary of findings from longitudinal neuroimaging studies on typical and atypical reading development. Studies focused on the prediction of reading gains with a single neuroimaging time point complement this review. Evidence from structural studies suggests that reading development results in increased structural integrity and functional specialization of left-hemispheric language areas. Compromised integrity of some of these tracts in children at risk for dyslexia might be compensated by higher anatomical connectivity in the homologous right hemisphere tracts. Regarding function, activation in phonological and audiovisual integration areas and growing sensitivity to print in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex (vOT) seem to be relevant neurodevelopmental markers of successful reading acquisition. Atypical vOT responses at the beginning of reading training and infant auditory brain potentials have been proposed as neuroimaging predictors of dyslexia that can complement behavioral measures. Besides these insights, longitudinal neuroimaging studies on reading and dyslexia are still relatively scarce and small sample sizes raise legitimate concerns about the reliability of the results. This review discusses the challenges of these studies and provides recommendations to improve this research area. Future longitudinal research with larger sample sizes are needed to improve our knowledge of typical and atypical reading neurodevelopment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katarzyna Chyl
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
| | - Gorka Fraga-González
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Silvia Brem
- Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- MR-Center of the Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics and the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Katarzyna Jednoróg
- Laboratory of Language Neurobiology, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
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24
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Neudorf J, Kress S, Gould L, Gibb K, Mickleborough M, Borowsky R. Language lateralization differences between left and right temporal lobe epilepsy as measured by overt word reading fMRI activation and DTI structural connectivity. Epilepsy Behav 2020; 112:107467. [PMID: 33181912 DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2020.107467] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2020] [Revised: 08/18/2020] [Accepted: 08/31/2020] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
Abstract
In cases of brain disease such as temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), damage may lead to functional reorganization and a shift in language dominance to homolog regions in the other hemisphere. If the effects of TLE on language dominance are hemisphere-focused, then brain regions and connections involved in word reading should be less left-lateralized in left temporal lobe epilepsy (lTLE) than right temporal lobe epilepsy (rTLE) or healthy controls, and the opposite effect should be observed in patients with rTLE. In our study, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) showed that patients with rTLE had more strongly lateralized left hemisphere (LH) activation than patients with lTLE and healthy controls in language-related brain regions (pars opercularis and fusiform gyrus (FuG)). Corresponding with this difference, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) found differences in connectivity indicative of patients with lTLE having greater tract integrity than patients with rTLE in the right hemisphere (RH) uncinate fasciculus (UF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), and inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF) using the network-based statistic analysis method. The UF, ILF, and IFOF tract integrity have previously been associated with lexical (whole-word) processing abilities. Multivariate distance matrix regression provided converging evidence for regions of the IFOF having different connectivity patterns between groups with lTLE and rTLE. This research demonstrates language lateralization differences between patient groups with lTLE and rTLE, and corresponding differences in the connectivity strength of the ILF, IFOF, and UF. This research provides a novel approach to measuring lateralization of language in general, and the fMRI and DTI findings were integral for guiding the neurosurgeons performing the TLE resections. This approach should inform future studies of language lateralization and language reorganization in patients such as those with TLE.
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Affiliation(s)
- Josh Neudorf
- Department of Psychology, 9 Campus Drive, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5, Canada
| | - Shaylyn Kress
- Department of Psychology, 9 Campus Drive, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5, Canada
| | - Layla Gould
- Division of Neurosurgery, Royal University Hospital, 103 Hospital Drive, Saskatoon, SK S7N 0W8, Canada
| | - Katherine Gibb
- Department of Psychology, 9 Campus Drive, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5, Canada
| | - Marla Mickleborough
- Department of Psychology, 9 Campus Drive, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5, Canada
| | - Ron Borowsky
- Department of Psychology, 9 Campus Drive, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK S7N 5A5, Canada.
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25
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The relation between neurofunctional and neurostructural determinants of phonological processing in pre-readers. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2020; 46:100874. [PMID: 33130464 PMCID: PMC7606842 DOI: 10.1016/j.dcn.2020.100874] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2019] [Revised: 10/15/2020] [Accepted: 10/16/2020] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Phonological processing skills are known as the most robust cognitive predictor of reading ability. Therefore, the neural determinants of phonological processing have been extensively investigated by means of either neurofunctional or neurostructural techniques. However, to fully understand how the brain represents and processes phonological information, there is need for studies that combine both methods. The present study applies such a multimodal approach with the aim of investigating the pre-reading relation between neural measures of auditory temporal processing, white matter properties of the reading network and phonological processing skills. We administered auditory steady-state responses, diffusion-weighted MRI scans and phonological awareness tasks in 59 pre-readers. Our results demonstrate that a stronger rightward lateralization of syllable-rate (4 Hz) processing coheres with higher fractional anisotropy in the left fronto-temporoparietal arcuate fasciculus. Both neural features each in turn relate to better phonological processing skills. As such, the current study provides novel evidence for the existence of a pre-reading relation between functional measures of syllable-rate processing, structural organization of the arcuate fasciculus and cognitive precursors of reading development. Moreover, our findings demonstrate the value of combining different neural techniques to gain insight in the underlying neural systems for reading (dis)ability.
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26
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Beaulieu C, Yip E, Low PB, Mädler B, Lebel CA, Siegel L, Mackay AL, Laule C. Myelin Water Imaging Demonstrates Lower Brain Myelination in Children and Adolescents With Poor Reading Ability. Front Hum Neurosci 2020; 14:568395. [PMID: 33192398 PMCID: PMC7596275 DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2020.568395] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2020] [Accepted: 08/31/2020] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides a means to non-invasively investigate the neurological links with dyslexia, a learning disability that affects one’s ability to read. Most previous brain MRI studies of dyslexia and reading skill have used structural or diffusion imaging to reveal regional brain abnormalities. However, volumetric and diffusion MRI lack specificity in their interpretation at the microstructural level. Myelin is a critical neural component for brain function and plasticity, and as such, deficits in myelin may impact reading ability. MRI can estimate myelin using myelin water fraction (MWF) imaging, which is based on evaluation of the proportion of short T2 myelin-associated water from multi-exponential T2 relaxation analysis, but has not yet been applied to the study of reading or dyslexia. In this study, MWF MRI, intelligence, and reading assessments were acquired in 20 participants aged 10–18 years with a wide range of reading ability to investigate the relationship between reading ability and myelination. Group comparisons showed markedly lower MWF by 16–69% in poor readers relative to good readers in the left and right thalamus, as well as the left posterior limb of the internal capsule, left/right anterior limb of the internal capsule, left/right centrum semiovale, and splenium of the corpus callosum. MWF over the entire group also correlated positively with three different reading scores in the bilateral thalamus as well as white matter, including the splenium of the corpus callosum, left posterior limb of the internal capsule, left anterior limb of the internal capsule, and left centrum semiovale. MWF imaging from T2 relaxation suggests that myelination, particularly in the bilateral thalamus, splenium, and left hemisphere white matter, plays a role in reading abilities. Myelin water imaging thus provides a potentially valuable in vivo imaging tool for the study of dyslexia and its remediation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Beaulieu
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
| | - Eugene Yip
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Pauline B Low
- Department of Education and Counseling Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | | | | | - Linda Siegel
- Department of Education and Counseling Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Alex L Mackay
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.,Department of Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Cornelia Laule
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.,Department of Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.,Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.,International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
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27
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Vander Stappen C, Dricot L, Van Reybroeck M. RAN training in dyslexia: Behavioral and brain correlates. Neuropsychologia 2020; 146:107566. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2020.107566] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2020] [Revised: 07/13/2020] [Accepted: 07/14/2020] [Indexed: 01/18/2023]
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28
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Ekstrand C, Neudorf J, Kress S, Borowsky R. Structural connectivity predicts functional activation during lexical and sublexical reading. Neuroimage 2020; 218:117008. [PMID: 32485306 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.117008] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2019] [Revised: 04/30/2020] [Accepted: 05/28/2020] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
A critical question in neuroscience is the extent to which structural connectivity of the brain predicts localization of brain function. Recent research has suggested that anatomical connectivity can predict functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) responses in several cognitive domains, including face, object, scene, and body processing, and development of word recognition skills (Osher et al., 2016; Saygin et al., 2016). However, this technique has not yet been extended to skilled word reading. Thus, we developed a computational model that relates anatomical connectivity (measured using probabilistic tractography) of individual cortical voxels to fMRI responses of the same voxels during lexical and sublexical reading tasks. Our results showed that the model built from structural connectivity was able to accurately predict functional responses of individual subjects based on their structural connectivity alone. This finding was apparent across the cortex, as well as to specific regions of interest associated with reading, language, and spatial attention. Further, we identified the structural connectivity networks associated with different aspects of skilled reading using connectivity analyses, and showed that interconnectivity between left hemisphere language and right hemisphere attentional areas underlies both lexical and sublexical reading. This work has important implications for understanding how structural connectivity contributes to reading and suggests that there is a relationship between skilled reading and neuroanatomical brain connectivity that future research should continue to explore.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chelsea Ekstrand
- Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, 9 Campus Dr., Saskatoon, SK, Canada, S7N 5A5
| | - Josh Neudorf
- Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, 9 Campus Dr., Saskatoon, SK, Canada, S7N 5A5
| | - Shaylyn Kress
- Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, 9 Campus Dr., Saskatoon, SK, Canada, S7N 5A5
| | - Ron Borowsky
- Cognitive Neuroscience Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Saskatchewan, 9 Campus Dr., Saskatoon, SK, Canada, S7N 5A5.
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29
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Maternal reading and fluency abilities are associated with diffusion properties of ventral and dorsal white matter tracts in their preschool-age children. Brain Cogn 2020; 140:105532. [PMID: 32007789 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105532] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/02/2020] [Revised: 01/21/2020] [Accepted: 01/23/2020] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
Early language exposure and shared parent-child reading, as assessed by maternal reading ability and fluency, affect the child's future language and cognitive abilities. The aim of the current study was to explore the association between maternal reading ability and fluency and diffusion properties of language- and cognition-related white matter tracts in their pre-school age children using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). DTI data were acquired from fifteen girls (mean age: 3.83 ± 0.49 years). Reading ability and fluency were assessed in their mothers. Effects of hemisphere and node on diffusion properties were measured at 100 points along white matter tracts related to language and cognitive abilities. Significant positive correlations were found between maternal reading ability and fractional anisotropy in left and right dorsal and ventral language and executive functions-related tracts, while maternal reading fluency was associated with higher fractional anisotropy in ventral tracts, mainly in the left hemisphere. Fractional Anisotropy was significantly higher in the left compared to the right arcuate, cingulum cingulate, and inferior longitudinal fasciculus and higher in the right compared to the left superior longitudinal fasciculus. Our results signify the importance of maternal reading as a facilitator of the child's future language and cognitive abilities.
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30
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Wang K, Li X, Huang R, Ding J, Song L, Han Z. The left inferior longitudinal fasciculus supports orthographic processing: Evidence from a lesion-behavior mapping analysis. BRAIN AND LANGUAGE 2020; 201:104721. [PMID: 31865263 DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/29/2018] [Revised: 10/05/2019] [Accepted: 11/10/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Orthographic processing is a critical stage in visual word recognition. However, the white-matter pathways that support this processing are unclear, as prior findings might have been confounded by impure behavioral measures, potential structural reorganization of the brain, and limited sample sizes. To address this issue, we investigated the correlations between the integrity of 20 major tracts in the whole brain and the pure orthographic index across 67 patients with short-term brain damage. The integrity of the tracts was measured by the lesion volume percentage and the mean fractional anisotropy value. The orthographic index was calculated as the residual of the orthographic tasks after regressing out corresponding nonorthographic tasks and the orthographic factor from the principal component analysis (PCA) on the basis of four orthographic tasks. We found significant correlations associated with the left inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), even after controlling for the influence of potential confounding variables. These observations strengthen evidence for the vital role of the left ILF in orthographic processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ke Wang
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
| | - Xiaonan Li
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
| | - Ruiwang Huang
- School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China
| | - Junhua Ding
- Department of Neurosurgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston 77030, USA
| | - Luping Song
- Shenzhen University General Hospital, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Shenzhen 518055, China.
| | - Zaizhu Han
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
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31
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Vandermosten M, Correia J, Vanderauwera J, Wouters J, Ghesquière P, Bonte M. Brain activity patterns of phonemic representations are atypical in beginning readers with family risk for dyslexia. Dev Sci 2019; 23:e12857. [PMID: 31090993 DOI: 10.1111/desc.12857] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/09/2018] [Revised: 04/03/2019] [Accepted: 04/29/2019] [Indexed: 12/13/2022]
Abstract
There is an ongoing debate whether phonological deficits in dyslexics should be attributed to (a) less specified representations of speech sounds, like suggested by studies in young children with a familial risk for dyslexia, or (b) to an impaired access to these phonemic representations, as suggested by studies in adults with dyslexia. These conflicting findings are rooted in between study differences in sample characteristics and/or testing techniques. The current study uses the same multivariate functional MRI (fMRI) approach as previously used in adults with dyslexia to investigate phonemic representations in 30 beginning readers with a familial risk and 24 beginning readers without a familial risk of dyslexia, of whom 20 were later retrospectively classified as dyslexic. Based on fMRI response patterns evoked by listening to different utterances of /bA/ and /dA/ sounds, multivoxel analyses indicate that the underlying activation patterns of the two phonemes were distinct in children with a low family risk but not in children with high family risk. However, no group differences were observed between children that were later classified as typical versus dyslexic readers, regardless of their family risk status, indicating that poor phonemic representations constitute a risk for dyslexia but are not sufficient to result in reading problems. We hypothesize that poor phonemic representations are trait (family risk) and not state (dyslexia) dependent, and that representational deficits only lead to reading difficulties when they are present in conjunction with other neuroanatomical or-functional deficits.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maaike Vandermosten
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neuroscience, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Department of Cognitive Neuroscience and Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Joao Correia
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience and Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands.,Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain
| | - Jolijn Vanderauwera
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neuroscience, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.,Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Jan Wouters
- Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neuroscience, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Pol Ghesquière
- Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
| | - Milene Bonte
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience and Maastricht Brain Imaging Center, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
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32
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Yu Q, Wang H, Li S, Dai Y. Predictive role of subcomponents of the left arcuate fasciculus in prognosis of aphasia after stroke: A retrospective observational study. Medicine (Baltimore) 2019; 98:e15775. [PMID: 31169676 PMCID: PMC6571406 DOI: 10.1097/md.0000000000015775] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
The relationship between the left arcuate fasciculus (AF) and stroke-related aphasia is unclear. In this retrospective study, we aimed to investigate the role of subcomponents of the left AF in predicting prognosis of aphasia after stroke. Twenty stroke patients with aphasia were recruited and received language assessment as well as diffusion tensor tractography scanning at admission. According to injury of the left AF, the participants were classified into four groups: group A (4 cases), the AF preserved intactly; group B (6 cases), the anterior segment injured; group C (4 cases), the posterior segment injured; and group D (6 cases), completely injured. After a consecutive speech therapy, language assessment was performed again. Changes of language functions among the groups were compared and the relation between these changes with segments injury of the AF was analyzed. After therapy, relatively high increase score percentage changes in terms of all the subcategories of language assessment were observed both in group A and C; by contrast, only naming in group B, and spontaneous speech in group D. Although no statistical difference was demonstrated among the four groups. In addition, there was no significant correlation between improvement of language function with segments injury of the AF. The predictive role of subcomponents of the left AF in prognosis of aphasia is obscure in our study. Nevertheless, it indicates the importance of integrity of the left AF for recovery of aphasia, namely that preservation of the left AF on diffusion tensor tractography could mean recovery potential of aphasia after stroke.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiwei Yu
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The Affiliated Suzhou Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Suzhou, Jiangsu
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University
| | - Hong Wang
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University
- Integrated Traditional Chinese And Western Medicine Hospital Affiliated of Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
| | - Shuqing Li
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University
| | - Yanhong Dai
- Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University
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33
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The interplay of socio-economic status represented by paternal educational level, white matter structure and reading. PLoS One 2019; 14:e0215560. [PMID: 31048844 PMCID: PMC6497374 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0215560] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2017] [Accepted: 04/05/2019] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
A child’s school achievement is influenced by environmental factors. The environmental factors, when represented by socio-economic status (SES) of the family, have been demonstrated to be related to the reading skills of a child. The neural correlates of the relation between SES and reading have been less thoroughly investigated. The present study expands current research by exploring the relation between SES, quantified by paternal educational level, reading of the offspring and the structure of white matter pathways in the left hemisphere as derived from DTI-based tractography analyses. Therefore, three dorsal white matter pathways, i.e. the long, anterior and posterior segments of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), and three ventral white matter pathways, i.e. the inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF) and the uncinate fasciculus (UF), were manually dissected in the left hemisphere of 34 adolescents with a wide range of reading skills. The results demonstrated a relation between word reading, SES quantified by paternal educational level, and fractional anisotropy (FA) within the left dorsal AF segment and the left ventral UF. Thus, the present study proposes a relationship between paternal educational level and a specific white matter pathway that is important for reading, aiming to guide future research that can determine processes underlying this relationship.
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34
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Moulton E, Bouhali F, Monzalvo K, Poupon C, Zhang H, Dehaene S, Dehaene-Lambertz G, Dubois J. Connectivity between the visual word form area and the parietal lobe improves after the first year of reading instruction: a longitudinal MRI study in children. Brain Struct Funct 2019; 224:1519-1536. [PMID: 30840149 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-019-01855-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/28/2018] [Accepted: 02/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Shortly after reading instruction, a region in the ventral occipital temporal cortex (vOTC) of the left hemisphere, the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA), becomes specialized for written words. Its reproducible location across scripts suggests important anatomical constraints, such as specific patterns of connectivity, notably to spoken language areas. Here, we explored the structural connectivity of the emerging VWFA in terms of its specificity relative to other ventral visual regions and its stability throughout the process of reading instruction in ten children studied longitudinally over 2 years. Category-specific regions for words, houses, faces, and tools were identified in the left vOTC of each subject with functional MRI. With diffusion MRI and tractography, we reconstructed the connections of these regions at two time points (mean age ± standard deviation: 6.2 ± 0.3, 7.2 ± 0.4 years). We first showed that the regions for each visual category harbor their own specific connectivity, all of which precede reading instruction and remain stable throughout development. The most specific connections of the VWFA were to the dorsal posterior parietal cortex. We then showed that microstructural changes in these connections correlated with improvements in reading scores over the first year of instruction but not 1 year later in a subsample of eight children (age: 8.4 ± 0.3 years). These results suggest that the VWFA location depends on its connectivity to distant regions, in particular, the left inferior parietal region which may play a crucial role in visual field maps and eye movement dynamics in addition to attentional control in letter-by-letter reading and disambiguation of mirror-letters during the first stages of learning to read.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eric Moulton
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit U992, INSERM, CEA DRF/Institut-Joliot/NeuroSpin, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris-Sud, 91191, Gif/Yvette, France. .,Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM, Inserm U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Université, 75013, Paris, France.
| | - Florence Bouhali
- Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM, Inserm U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Université, 75013, Paris, France
| | - Karla Monzalvo
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit U992, INSERM, CEA DRF/Institut-Joliot/NeuroSpin, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris-Sud, 91191, Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Cyril Poupon
- CEA DRF/Institut-Joliot/NeuroSpin, UNIRS, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris-Sud, 91191, Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Hui Zhang
- Department of Computer Science and Centre for Medical Image Computing, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Stanislas Dehaene
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit U992, INSERM, CEA DRF/Institut-Joliot/NeuroSpin, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris-Sud, 91191, Gif/Yvette, France.,Collège de France, Paris, France
| | - Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit U992, INSERM, CEA DRF/Institut-Joliot/NeuroSpin, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris-Sud, 91191, Gif/Yvette, France
| | - Jessica Dubois
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit U992, INSERM, CEA DRF/Institut-Joliot/NeuroSpin, Université Paris-Saclay, Université Paris-Sud, 91191, Gif/Yvette, France
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35
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Žarić G, Timmers I, Gerretsen P, Fraga González G, Tijms J, van der Molen MW, Blomert L, Bonte M. Atypical White Matter Connectivity in Dyslexic Readers of a Fairly Transparent Orthography. Front Psychol 2018; 9:1147. [PMID: 30042708 PMCID: PMC6049043 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01147] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2017] [Accepted: 06/14/2018] [Indexed: 01/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Atypical structural properties of the brain's white matter bundles have been associated with failing reading acquisition in developmental dyslexia. Because these white matter properties may show dynamic changes with age and orthographic depth, we examined fractional anisotropy (FA) along 16 white matter tracts in 8- to 11-year-old dyslexic (DR) and typically reading (TR) children learning to read in a fairly transparent orthography (Dutch). Our results showed higher FA values in the bilateral anterior thalamic radiations of DRs and FA values of the left thalamic radiation scaled with behavioral reading-related scores. Furthermore, DRs tended to have atypical FA values in the bilateral arcuate fasciculi. Children's age additionally predicted FA values along the tracts. Together, our findings suggest differential contributions of cortical and thalamo-cortical pathways to the developing reading network in dyslexic and typical readers, possibly indicating prolonged letter-by-letter reading or increased attentional and/or working memory demands in dyslexic children during reading.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gojko Žarić
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
- Maastricht Brain Imaging Center (M-BIC), Maastricht, Netherlands
| | - Inge Timmers
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
- Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States
| | | | - Gorka Fraga González
- Department of Developmental Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Jurgen Tijms
- IWAL Instituut Voor Leerproblemen, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | | | - Leo Blomert
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
- Maastricht Brain Imaging Center (M-BIC), Maastricht, Netherlands
| | - Milene Bonte
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands
- Maastricht Brain Imaging Center (M-BIC), Maastricht, Netherlands
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