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White matter properties differ in 6-year old Readers and Pre-readers

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Abstract

Reading, an essential life skill in modern society, is typically learned during childhood. Adults who can read show white matter differences compared to adults who never learned to read. Studies have not established whether children who can read show similar white matter differences compared to children who cannot read. We compared 6-year old children who could decode written English words and pseudowords (n = 31; Readers) and 6-year old children who could not decode pseudowords and had a standard score <100 on a task for reading single words (n = 11; Pre-readers). We employed diffusion MRI and tractography to extract fractional anisotropy (FA) along the trajectory of six bilateral intra-hemispheric tracts and two posterior subdivisions of the corpus callosum. Readers demonstrated significantly increased FA within the left anterior segment of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (aSLF-L) and the right uncinate fasciculus (UF-R) compared to Pre-readers. FA in the aSLF-L was significantly correlated with phonological awareness; FA in the UF-R was significantly correlated with language. Correlations in the UF-R but not the aSLF-L remained significant after controlling for reading ability, revealing that UF-R group differences were related to both children’s language and reading abilities. Taken together, these findings demonstrate new evidence showing that individual differences in white matter structure relate to whether children have begun to read.

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We thank the children and families who participated in our study.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Division of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University School of Medicine, 750 Welch Road Suite 315, Palo Alto, CA, 94304-1510, USA

      Katherine E. Travis, Jenna N. Adams, Vanessa N. Kovachy & Heidi M. Feldman

    2. The Gonda Brain Research Center, Bar Ilan University, 5290002, Ramat Gan, Israel

      Michal Ben-Shachar

    3. Department of English Literature and Linguistics, Bar Ilan University, 5290002, Ramat Gan, Israel

      Michal Ben-Shachar

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    1. Katherine E. Travis
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    Correspondence to Heidi M. Feldman.

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    This work was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institutes of Child Health and Human Development at the National Institutes of Health (Grant Numbers RO1-HD69162, RO1-HD46500); the I-CORE Program of the Planning and Budgeting Committee; and The Israel Science Foundation (Grant Number 51/11) to MB-S.

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    K. E. Travis and J. N. Adams contributed equally to the manuscript and share the position of first author.

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    Travis, K.E., Adams, J.N., Kovachy, V.N. et al. White matter properties differ in 6-year old Readers and Pre-readers. Brain Struct Funct 222, 1685–1703 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-016-1302-1

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