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  3. Dyslexia and thalamus volume : an evaluation of the theories of dyslexia
Title

Dyslexia and thalamus volume : an evaluation of the theories of dyslexia

    Item Description
    Limited Access
    The author(s) chose to restrict access to this thesis to current Whitman students, faculty, and staff. Please log in to view it.
    Linked Agent
    Creator (cre): Tamburello, Natalie Rose Traun
    Advisor (adv): Prull, Matthew
    Department (dpt): Whitman College. Psychology Department
    Date
    May 8, 2012
    Graduation Year
    2012
    Abstract

    Reading is critical to success in modern society; however, reading is a significant developmental problem for many children, and researchers are seeking ways to identify dyslexia earlier in a child’s development. The purpose of this study was to identify early predictors of dyslexia using behavioral and neuroimaging data. I collected structural MRI and pre-reading behavioral measures from five year old children that were or were not at risk for dyslexia to determine to what extent these measures predict reading ability two years later. I found that pre-reading ability and intelligence scores at age five correlated significantly with composite reading scores two years later, suggesting that these behavioral measures predict later reading ability. I also found that thalamic grey matter volume correlated significantly with reading ability two years later, above and beyond the behavioral measures, suggesting that thalamic size serves as an additional and independent predictor of later reading ability. This thalamic finding may provide an important bridge between two competing theories of dyslexia development, serve to illuminate our understanding of brain development in individuals with dyslexia, and supply an important advance in early identification of dyslexia in children.

    Subject
    Neuroimaging
    Reading disability
    Brain -- Development -- Reading
    Diffusion tensor imaging
    Neurobiology
    Thalamus
    Childhood development
    Dyslexia -- Children
    Social sciences
    Academic theses
    Whitman College 2012 -- Dissertation collection -- Psychology Department
    Genre
    Theses
    Extent
    63 pages
    Permanent URL
    http://works.whitman.edu/1173
    Rights
    http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
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