Researchers Find Possible Key to Overcoming Dyslexia

Researchers at the University of Washington have used new software to look at how dyslexic children's brains are organized. They have discovered that the key areas in the brain that control language and the working part of the memory that is involved in reading are not connected in the same way as they are that they are in children who are not dyslectic.

The dyslexic children were put in a three-week instructional program. After the three weeks were up, they were tested and the results showed that their patterns of functional brain connectivity were normal and also were similar to the patterns of good readers when they were asked to decide whether or not sounds went with specific groups of letters within words

The research showed that some of the regions of the brain are just too strongly connected in function in children who are dyslexic, in particular when they must decide which sounds are associated with which letters. Previous studies had indicated that a person's ability to be able to decode novel words does tend to improve when a region in the right hemisphere of the brain decreases in activation.

This study shows that this deactivation might cause a disconnection in time from a similar region in the left hemisphere, and this leads to improved reading. This is called temporal connectivity, or the ability of different parts of the brain to communicate with each other either at the same time or in sequence. This research shows that it is a key in overcoming dyslexia.

They used the analogy of dyslexia being like an orchestra trying to play with a conductor who cannot keep the musicians playing in sync with one another. All of the instruments are there, but if the conductor does not know what he is doing, then the right instruments will play at the wrong time. Once the conductor finds a way to signal the musicians to come together and play at the right time, the problem is solved.