A three-time point longitudinal investigation of the arcuate fasciculus throughout reading acquisition in children developing dyslexia

Although the neural basis of dyslexia has intensively been investigated, results are still unclear about the existence of a white matter deficit in the arcuate fasciculus (AF) throughout development. To unravel this ambiguity, we examined the difference in fractional anisotropy (FA) of the AF betwee...

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Main Authors: Stijn Van Der Auwera, Maaike Vandermosten, Jan Wouters, Pol Ghesquière, Jolijn Vanderauwera
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2021-08-01
Series:NeuroImage
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811921003645
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spelling doaj-89cc499e236e4baa9c9bb72d5847fe1f2021-07-03T04:43:54ZengElsevierNeuroImage1095-95722021-08-01237118087A three-time point longitudinal investigation of the arcuate fasciculus throughout reading acquisition in children developing dyslexiaStijn Van Der Auwera0Maaike Vandermosten1Jan Wouters2Pol Ghesquière3Jolijn Vanderauwera4Parenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, BelgiumResearch Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, BelgiumResearch Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, BelgiumParenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, BelgiumParenting and Special Education Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium; Research Group ExpORL, Department of Neurosciences, KU Leuven, Belgium; Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Institute of Neuroscience, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; Corresponding author.Although the neural basis of dyslexia has intensively been investigated, results are still unclear about the existence of a white matter deficit in the arcuate fasciculus (AF) throughout development. To unravel this ambiguity, we examined the difference in fractional anisotropy (FA) of the AF between children developing dyslexia and children developing typical reading skills in a longitudinal sample with three MRI time points throughout reading development: the pre-reading stage (5–6 years old), the early reading stage (7–8 years old) and the advanced reading stage (9–10 years old). Applying along-the-tract analyses of white matter organization, our results confirmed that a white matter deficit existed in the left AF prior to the onset of formal reading instruction in children who developed dyslexia later on. This deficit was consistently present throughout the course of reading development. Additionally, we evaluated the use of applying a continuous approach on the participants’ reading skills rather than the arbitrary categorization in individuals with or without dyslexia. Our results confirmed the predictive relation between FA and word reading measurements later in development. This study supports the use of longitudinal approaches to investigate the neural basis of the developmental process of learning to read and the application of triangulation, i.e. using multiple research approaches to help gain more insight and aiding the interpretation of obtained results.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811921003645Developmental dyslexiaReadingWhite matterDiffusion Tensor ImagingAutomated Fiber QuantificationLongitudinal design
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Stijn Van Der Auwera
Maaike Vandermosten
Jan Wouters
Pol Ghesquière
Jolijn Vanderauwera
spellingShingle Stijn Van Der Auwera
Maaike Vandermosten
Jan Wouters
Pol Ghesquière
Jolijn Vanderauwera
A three-time point longitudinal investigation of the arcuate fasciculus throughout reading acquisition in children developing dyslexia
NeuroImage
Developmental dyslexia
Reading
White matter
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Automated Fiber Quantification
Longitudinal design
author_facet Stijn Van Der Auwera
Maaike Vandermosten
Jan Wouters
Pol Ghesquière
Jolijn Vanderauwera
author_sort Stijn Van Der Auwera
title A three-time point longitudinal investigation of the arcuate fasciculus throughout reading acquisition in children developing dyslexia
title_short A three-time point longitudinal investigation of the arcuate fasciculus throughout reading acquisition in children developing dyslexia
title_full A three-time point longitudinal investigation of the arcuate fasciculus throughout reading acquisition in children developing dyslexia
title_fullStr A three-time point longitudinal investigation of the arcuate fasciculus throughout reading acquisition in children developing dyslexia
title_full_unstemmed A three-time point longitudinal investigation of the arcuate fasciculus throughout reading acquisition in children developing dyslexia
title_sort three-time point longitudinal investigation of the arcuate fasciculus throughout reading acquisition in children developing dyslexia
publisher Elsevier
series NeuroImage
issn 1095-9572
publishDate 2021-08-01
description Although the neural basis of dyslexia has intensively been investigated, results are still unclear about the existence of a white matter deficit in the arcuate fasciculus (AF) throughout development. To unravel this ambiguity, we examined the difference in fractional anisotropy (FA) of the AF between children developing dyslexia and children developing typical reading skills in a longitudinal sample with three MRI time points throughout reading development: the pre-reading stage (5–6 years old), the early reading stage (7–8 years old) and the advanced reading stage (9–10 years old). Applying along-the-tract analyses of white matter organization, our results confirmed that a white matter deficit existed in the left AF prior to the onset of formal reading instruction in children who developed dyslexia later on. This deficit was consistently present throughout the course of reading development. Additionally, we evaluated the use of applying a continuous approach on the participants’ reading skills rather than the arbitrary categorization in individuals with or without dyslexia. Our results confirmed the predictive relation between FA and word reading measurements later in development. This study supports the use of longitudinal approaches to investigate the neural basis of the developmental process of learning to read and the application of triangulation, i.e. using multiple research approaches to help gain more insight and aiding the interpretation of obtained results.
topic Developmental dyslexia
Reading
White matter
Diffusion Tensor Imaging
Automated Fiber Quantification
Longitudinal design
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811921003645
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