Dr. Kenneth Pugh presents "Neuroimaging studies of reading and language development: An update on recent findings.""

Neuroimaging studies of reading and language development: An update on recent findings. Please joins us for this CRLMB Distinguished Lecture Series lecture by Dr. Ken Pugh, President and Directorof Research, Senior Scientist, at Haskins Laboratories, in New Haven, Connecticut.

Abstract:

Our research combines several types of neuroimaging technologies with intensive behavioral testing in order to examine developmental trajectories for language and reading in both reading disabled (RD) and non-impaired (NI) cohorts. In studies of both adults and children, RD readers demonstrate anomalous brain activation patterns at posterior regions in the left hemisphere (LH) during tasks that make explicit demands on phonological processing, along with, what appears to be, a compensatory reliance on frontal lobe sites and right hemisphere systems. Brain/behavior analyses have indicated that the development of reading fluency in young children is strongly associated with the development of the left hemisphere posterior reading system.

Our new longitudinal project is aimed at establishing key neuro-chemical and genetic factors associated with atypical brain/behavior trajectories; initial findings will be discussed.
With regard to plasticity and learning, intervention studies have examined the influence of intensive phonological remediation in young at-risk children, revealing substantial gains in both reading scores and development of these LH reading systems for children afforded this treatment. Recent extensions of our learning research with older RD readers continue to suggest a high degree of plasticity in this population.