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Objectives: To determine if differences between dyslexic and typical readers in their reading scores and verbal IQ are evident as early as first grade and whether the trajectory of these differences increases or decreases from childhood to adolescence., Study Design: The subjects were the 414 participants comprising the Connecticut Longitudinal Study, a sample survey cohort, assessed yearly from 1st to 12th grade on measures of reading and IQ. Statistical analysis employed longitudinal models based on growth curves and multiple groups., Results: As early as first grade, compared with typical readers, dyslexic readers had lower reading scores and verbal IQ, and their trajectories over time never converge with those of typical readers. These data demonstrate that such differences are not so much a function of increasing disparities over time but instead because of differences already present in first grade between typical and dyslexic readers., Conclusions: The achievement gap between typical and dyslexic readers is evident as early as first grade, and this gap persists into adolescence. These findings provide strong evidence and impetus for early identification of and intervention for young children at risk for dyslexia. Implementing effective reading programs as early as kindergarten or even preschool offers the potential to close the achievement gap., (Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To examine age-related changes in the neural systems for reading in nonimpaired and dyslexic children and adolescents., Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to study age-related changes in the neural systems for reading in a cross-sectional sample of 232 right-handed children 7 to 18 years of age (113 dyslexic readers and 119 nonimpaired readers) as they read pseudowords., Results: In nonimpaired readers, systems in the left anterior lateral occipitotemporal area developed with age, whereas systems in the right superior and middle frontal regions decreased. In contrast, in dyslexic readers, systems in the left posterior medial occipitotemporal regions developed with age. Older nonimpaired readers were left lateralized in the anterior lateral occipitotemporal area; there was no difference in asymmetry between younger and older dyslexic readers., Interpretation: These findings offer a possible neurobiological explanation for the differences in reading acquisition between dyslexic and nonimpaired readers and provide further evidence of the critical role of the left occipitotemporal region in the development of reading.

We studied error-related negativity (ERN) and error positivity (Pe) during a discrimination task in 319 unmedicated children divided into subtypes of ADHD (Not-ADHD/inattentive/combined), learning disorder (Not-LD/reading/math/reading+math), and oppositional defiant disorder. Response-locked ERPs contained a frontocentral ERN and posterior Pe. Error-related negativity and positivity exhibited larger amplitude and later latency than corresponding waves for correct responses matched on reaction time. ADHD did not affect performance on the task. The ADHD/combined sample exceeded controls in ERN amplitude, perhaps reflecting patients' adaptive monitoring efforts. Compared with controls, subjects with reading disorder and reading+math disorder performed worse on the task and had marginally more negative correct-related negativities. In contrast, Pe/Pc was smaller in children with reading+math disorder than among subjects with reading disorder and Not-LD participants; this nonspecific finding is not attributable to error processing. The results reflect anomalies in error processing in these disorders but further research is needed to address inconsistencies in the literature.

Objective: Recent studies have suggested that attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is associated with abnormalities in basal ganglia and prefrontal cortical functioning. However, these studies have primarily relied upon cognitive tasks that reflect impulse control rather than attentional mechanisms., Method: The authors used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate the neural correlates of selective and divided attention in a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pharmacological challenge with methylphenidate in 15 adolescents with ADHD (ages 14-17), eight adolescents with reading disorder (ages 12-17), and four adolescents with both reading disorder and ADHD (ages 14-18) who were scanned during both a methylphenidate and a placebo session. Fourteen healthy comparison subjects (ages 12-20) who were not given methylphenidate served as the primary comparison group., Results: During the divided attention task, unmedicated subjects with ADHD or reading disorder recruited the left ventral basal ganglia significantly less than the healthy comparison subjects. Methylphenidate led to an increase in activation in this region but had no effect on task performance. Subjects with ADHD also recruited the middle temporal gyrus significantly less than the comparison subjects, but methylphenidate did not have a direct effect on activation in this region., Conclusions: These results suggest that ADHD is associated with abnormal processing in attentional networks, with specific dysfunction in striatal circuitry. Methylphenidate may act to normalize activity within this network.

Background: A range of neurobiological investigations shows a failure of left hemisphere posterior brain systems to function properly during reading in children and adults with reading disabilities. Such evidence of a disruption in the normal reading pathways provides a neurobiological target for reading interventions. In this study, we hypothesized that the provision of an evidence-based, phonologically mediated reading intervention would improve reading fluency and the development of the fast-paced occipitotemporal systems serving skilled reading., Methods: Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to study the effects of a phonologically based reading intervention on brain organization and reading fluency in 77 children aged 6.1-9.4 years (49 with reading disability and 28 control subjects). Children comprised three experimental groups: experimental intervention (n = 37), community intervention (n = 12), and community control subjects (n = 28)., Results: Immediately after the year-long intervention, children taught with the experimental intervention had made significant gains in reading fluency and demonstrated increased activation in left hemisphere regions, including the inferior frontal gyrus and the middle temporal gyrus; 1 year after the experimental intervention had ended these children were activating bilateral inferior frontal gyri and left superior temporal and occipitotemporal regions., Conclusions: These data indicate that the nature of the remedial educational intervention is critical to successful outcomes in children with reading disabilities and that the use of an evidence-based phonologic reading intervention facilitates the development of those fast-paced neural systems that underlie skilled reading.

Objective: Considerable controversy surrounds the issue of whether estrogen influences cognitive function in postmenopausal women, and the results are far from consistent. For the most part, the cognitive processes studied have involved memory; to our knowledge, no previous studies have specifically examined the effects of estrogen on women's reading ability., Design: To investigate reading and short-term memory in postmenopausal women treated with conjugated equine estrogens, we carried out a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of 21 days in 60 midlife, postmenopausal women aged 32.8 to 64.9 years (mean 51.2 years, SD 5.0 years). Women were evaluated for oral reading measured by Gray Oral Reading Tests (third edition) and for verbal memory using immediate and delayed recall on the Logical Memory and Paired Associate Learning subtests of the Wechsler Memory Scale and by a Sentence Span task., Results: The group receiving daily treatment with conjugated equine estrogens (Premarin, 1.25 mg; Wyeth-Ayerst Labs, Philadelphia, PA, USA) showed better oral reading and verbal memory performance than the placebo group., Conclusion: Estrogen may have positive effects on oral reading and verbal memory in midlife, postmenopausal women.

Background: This study examined whether and how two groups of young adults who were poor readers as children (a relatively compensated group and a group with persistent reading difficulties) differed from nonimpaired readers and if there were any factors distinguishing the compensated from persistently poor readers that might account for their different outcomes., Methods: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we studied three groups of young adults, ages 18.5-22.5 years, as they read pseudowords and real words: 1) persistently poor readers (PPR; n = 24); 2) accuracy improved (compensated) readers (AIR; n = 19); and 3) nonimpaired readers (NI, n = 27)., Results: Compensated readers, who are accurate but not fluent, demonstrate a relative underactivation in posterior neural systems for reading located in left parietotemporal and occipitotemporal regions. Persistently poor readers, who are both not fluent and less accurate, activate posterior reading systems but engage them differently from nonimpaired readers, appearing to rely more on memory-based rather than analytic word identification strategies., Conclusions: These findings of divergent neural outcomes as young adults are both new and unexpected and suggest a neural basis for reading outcomes of compensation and persistence in adults with childhood dyslexia.

Background: We investigated the impact of stimulus probability and sequence on performance and event-related potentials of 310 children classified into 12 combinations of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Not-attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, Inattentive and Combined subtypes) with presence/absence of reading disorder and math disorder., Methods: Subjects pressed buttons to displays of the letters O and X, which were presented with probabilities of either .17/.83 or .50/.50. Greater response selection was required in the .17/.83 condition., Results: Stimulus probability had comparable effects on all diagnostic groups. The extent of mismatch between a stimulus and preceding events elicited less systematic increases in errors, P3b latency, and P3b amplitude among both attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder subtypes than controls. Mismatch with preceding trials more greatly reduced math disorder and reading disorder + math disorder children's speed in the Rare task and accuracy in both conditions. Math disorder and reading disorder + math disorder subjects also registered less the effects of alternations of the infrequent O on N2 amplitude and on P3b latency., Conclusions: Math disorder and reading disorder + math disorder youngsters' lower sensitivity to sequence irregularity in their event-related potentials along with greater disruption of performance suggest working memory deficits that adversely affected response selection. Comorbidity of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and reading disorder did not affect the results.

Background: Converging evidence indicates a functional disruption in the neural systems for reading in adults with dyslexia. We examined brain activation patterns in dyslexic and nonimpaired children during pseudoword and real-word reading tasks that required phonologic analysis (i.e., tapped the problems experienced by dyslexic children in sounding out words)., Methods: We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study 144 right-handed children, 70 dyslexic readers, and 74 nonimpaired readers as they read pseudowords and real words., Results: Children with dyslexia demonstrated a disruption in neural systems for reading involving posterior brain regions, including parietotemporal sites and sites in the occipitotemporal area. Reading skill was positively correlated with the magnitude of activation in the left occipitotemporal region. Activation in the left and right inferior frontal gyri was greater in older compared with younger dyslexic children., Conclusions: These findings provide neurobiological evidence of an underlying disruption in the neural systems for reading in children with dyslexia and indicate that it is evident at a young age. The locus of the disruption places childhood dyslexia within the same neurobiological framework as dyslexia, and acquired alexia, occurring in adults.