Visual attention and neural oscillations in reading and dyslexia: Are they possible targets for remediation?

Abstract

After decades of finding a range of cognitive functions both in visual and phonological domains that correlate with reading performance, there are in recent years attempts to solve the causation versus correlation dilemma in finding a core deficit in developmental dyslexia (DD). Thus, longitudinal studies that aim to predict reading difficulties from studies done in pre-reading years and reading-level matched studies that try to factor out the effect due to lack of reading in DD cohorts, have helped identify two possible candidates to be added to the classical phonological suspect. One is a deficit in visuo-spatial attention that underpins our ability to selectively attend to individual objects in a cluttered world, which is fundamental in being able to identify letters and words in a text such as the one you are reading now. The other is an impairment in synchronised neuronal oscillations that may be crucial in mediating many cortical functions and also communication between brain regions. The latter may be a general deficit affecting many areas of the brain and thus underlie the wide-ranging co-morbidities in DD. However, that neuronal synchrony is a critical mediator in visual attention, brings the two suggestions into one hypothesis of a core deficit that triggers in some young children a great reluctance to read, putting them at a handicap in comparison to other children. This deprives them of the advantage that normal readers have in development of those visual and phonological processes that are needed for reading. This insight into aetiology may help in developing new remediation strategies, specifically aimed at improving visual attention and neuronal synchrony.

Keywords: Dyslexia; Magnocellular pathway; Neural synchrony; Oscillations; Remediation; Visual attention.