MRI scan offers remedial options for dyslexic children
(HealthDay News) – More and more uses are being found for the device known as the MRI -- magnetic resonance imaging -- and sometimes, what it finds can be used to improve specific treatment of a disease or condition.
A good example is what the MRI found during research into the brain patterns of dyslexic children, those who have difficulty deciphering words and letters in reading and writing.
The 2003 study was the first to document brain function changes in children with dyslexia by using MRI scans.
"The most important finding of the study is that brain dysfunction in dyslexia, which has been shown [to occur] in other studies, can actually be changed and made better to a large degree with a training program that is dealing with their behavior and their reading," says Elise Temple, lead author of the study, which were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
Dyslexia is a language-based learning disability that results in difficulties with reading, writing and spelling. It may affect up to 17 percent of the population, says Temple , who at the time of the study was an assistant professor of human development at Cornell University . She now is an assistant professor in the department of education at Dartmouth College .
"One of the real problems people with dyslexia have," Temple says, "is actually at the level of understanding the sound in the words they read -- to know, for instance, that the sounds 'ca,' 'a' and 't' make up the word cat. That's called phonological processing. And many researchers are finding that's the crux of the problem."
Temple and her colleagues tracked brain activity in the exact region in which that phonological processing occurs, an area called the left temporo-parietal cortex.
In all, they evaluated 20 children, aged 8 to 12, with dyslexia and 12 children in the same age range without the disorder. The children with dyslexia participated in an eight-week reading remediation program. All children received functional MRI scans before and after the eight-week study.
The MRI scans taken after the remediation program showed that the left temporo-parietal cortices of the dyslexic children were nearly as active as that area in the children without dyslexia.
The scans also found increased activity in the dyslexic children in the right-brain area that is a mirror image of the left temporo-parietal area. The researchers think this might be a compensatory mechanism, perhaps temporary, to make up for the decreased activity in the left brain of the dyslexic children.
"Their improvement in reading got them to the normal [reading] ranges," Temple says, although some were "still a little bit on the low end of normal."
The program used for the study was the Fast ForWord program. Three of the study's co-authors are co-founders of the company producing the program, but Temple has no affiliation with the company.
"There are hundreds of programs," Temple says. "What this study does not tell us is how the brain would respond to other training programs."
She hopes to study other training programs soon.
Until more is known, Temple says parents of children with dyslexia should be heartened by the news that it is possible to change the brain activity. And parents should be certain their child's school uses a program that focuses on improving phonological processing.
On the Web
For some frequently asked questions about dyslexia, visit the International Dyslexia Association Web site.
SOURCES:
Elise Temple, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Education, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H.; Feb. 25, 2003, online edition, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Author:
Kathleen Doheny , H ealthDay Reporter
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