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. 2023 Jan;44(1):18-34.
doi: 10.1002/hbm.26048. Epub 2022 Aug 19.

Longitudinal changes in brain activation underlying reading fluency

Ola Ozernov-Palchik  1   2 , Dana Sury  3 , Ted K Turesky  2 , Xi Yu  4 , Nadine Gaab  2   5
Affiliations

Longitudinal changes in brain activation underlying reading fluency

Ola Ozernov-Palchik et al. Hum Brain Mapp. 2023 Jan.

Abstract

Reading fluency-the speed and accuracy of reading connected text-is foundational to educational success. The current longitudinal study investigates the neural correlates of fluency development using a connected-text paradigm with an individualized presentation rate. Twenty-six children completed a functional MRI task in 1st/2nd grade (time 1) and again 1-2 years later (time 2). There was a longitudinal increase in activation in the ventral occipito-temporal (vOT) cortex from time 1 to time 2. This increase was also associated with improvements in reading fluency skills and modulated by individual speed demands. These findings highlight the reciprocal relationship of the vOT region with reading proficiency and its importance for supporting the developmental transition to fluent reading. These results have implications for developing effective interventions to target increased automaticity in reading.

Keywords: development; fmri; longitudinal; reading fluency; ventral occipitotemporal cortex.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Fluent sentence reading (all speeds) > rest for the time 1 point, time 2 point, and the comparison between the two time points. Children show increased BOLD responses in several cortical and subcortical region mainly in occipito‐temporal regions. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05 cluster‐corrected.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Fluent sentence reading (all speeds) > letter reading (all speeds) for time 1 and time 2. Children show increased BOLD responses in bilateral ventral occipito‐temporal (vOT) cortex for the sentence reading task vs. the letter reading task. Time points comparison did not reveal significant differences. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05 cluster‐corrected.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Individual growth lines for all participants representing increased activation from time 1 to time 2 in the left ventral occipito‐temporal (vOT) regions for sentences (a) and letters (b) conditions.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Comparisons of different reading speed (comfortable> constrained sentence reading; accelerated > constrained sentences reading) for time 2 and the time points comparisons. Children show increased BOLD responses in bilateral vOT cortex in advanced reading stage and for the time points comparisons. No significant effects were found for time 1. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05 cluster‐corrected.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
A scatter plot illustrating partial correlation of growth in left vOT cortex activation (ROI) for sentence Reading (a) and letter string Reading (b) conditions with growth in reading fluency (WJ‐III) controlling for the time differences between two measures (r [26] = 0.53, p = 0.007).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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