Amodal Atypical Neural Oscillatory Activity in Dyslexia: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective

First Published December 21, 2016 It has been proposed that atypical neural oscillations in both the auditory and the visual modalities could explain why some individuals fail to learn to read and suffer from developmental dyslexia. However, the role of specific oscillatory mechanisms in reading acquisition is still under debate. In this article, we take a cross-linguistic approach and argue that both the phonological and orthographic specifics of a language (e.g., linguistic rhythm, orthographic depth) shape the oscillatory activity thought to contribute to reading development. The proposed theoretical framework should allow future research to test cross-linguistic hypotheses that will shed light on the heterogeneity of auditory and visual disorders and their underlying brain dysfunction(s) in developmental dyslexia, and inform clinical practice by helping us to diagnose dyslexia across languages. This research was funded by the European Research Council (ERC Advanced Grant, BILITERACY Project, to M.C.), and the Spanish government (Plan Nacional-PSI2012-32128 and PSI2015-65338-P to M.L., Plan Nacional-PSI2012-32350 and PSI2015-65694-P to N.M., and Plan Nacional-PSI2015-67353-R to M.C.). The Basque Center on Brain Cognition and Language acknowledges funding from Ayuda Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa SEV-2015-0490.