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Scientific article
Review
English

A functionally guided approach to the morphometry of occipitotemporal regions in developmental dyslexia: evidence for differential effects in boys and girls

Contributors

Altarelli, Irène; Monzalvo, Karla; Iannuzzi, Stéphanie; Fluss, Joel Victor; Billard, Catherine; Ramus, Franck; Dehaene-Lambertz, Ghislaine

Published in

The Journal of neuroscience, vol. 33, no. 27, p. 11296-11301

Publication date

2013

Abstract

Developmental dyslexia is a learning disability that specifically affects reading acquisition. Cortical anomalies and gray matter volume differences in various temporal regions have been reported in dyslexic subjects compared with controls. However, consistency between studies is lacking. In the present experiments, we focused our structural analyses on the ventral occipitotemporal regions, defined by their functional response to visual categories. We applied a subject-by-subject functionally guided approach on a total of 76 participants (31 dyslexic children). Cortical thickness was estimated for each participant around his/her peak of specific functional activation to visual words, faces, or places. Results from two independent datasets showed a reduction in thickness in dyslexic children compared with controls in the region responsive to words, in the left hemisphere. Additionally, a gender-by-diagnosis interaction was observed at the same location, due to differences in girls only. To avoid the potential confound of reading level, we also contrasted dyslexic and control children matched for reading performance, and we observed a similar difference, although in a smaller extent of cortex. The present study thus provides the first account of a focal cortical thickness reduction in dyslexia in the subregion of ventral occipitotemporal cortex specifically responsive to visual words, when age, gender, and reading performance are taken into account.

Keywords

  • Brain Mapping/methods
  • Child
  • Dyslexia/diagnosis/physiopathology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Occipital Lobe/physiology
  • Photic Stimulation/methods
  • Sex Characteristics
  • Temporal Lobe/physiology

UNIGE affiliation entities

Not a UNIGE publication

Citation (ISO format)

ALTARELLI, Irène et al. A functionally guided approach to the morphometry of occipitotemporal regions in developmental dyslexia: evidence for differential effects in boys and girls. In: The Journal of neuroscience, 2013, vol. 33, n° 27, p. 11296–11301. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5854-12.2013

Main files (1)

Article (Published version)

Identifiers

Journal ISSN

0270-6474
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Technical informations

Creation

27/02/2014 11:23:00

First validation

27/02/2014 11:23:00

Update

14/03/2023 21:25:14

Status update

14/03/2023 21:25:14

Last indexation

30/10/2024 19:18:18
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