1 Educational Neuroimaging Center, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Technion, Haifa, Israel.
2 Reading and Literacy Discovery Center, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Brain Connect. 2019 Jul;9(6):500-507. doi: 10.1089/brain.2018.0655. Epub 2019 Jun 10.
Reading is a complex cognitive ability, which relies on visual and language processing as well as on executive functions (EFs). Recent studies have demonstrated that increased reading ability in children aged 7-17 years is related to greater activation of cognitive control regions during verb generation, a task which merges linguistic and cognitive control ability. The aim of the current study is to determine the relationships between neural circuits specifically related to EF and reading ability. We focused on functional connectivity between the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a region involved in EF and is part of the frontoparietal network during a verb generation task, and reading ability in seventeen 8-12-year-old typical readers. Results show positive functional connectivity between the left and right DLPFCs and regions related to cognitive control and visual processing while generating verbs. Increased reading ability was positively correlated with greater functional connectivity between the left and right DLPFCs and right-lateralized visual processing regions. The current study highlights the importance of neural circuits related to EF during both verb generation and reading and points to the role of the right occipital cortex in generating verbs as well as automatic word recognition in typical readers.
阅读是一种复杂的认知能力，它依赖于视觉和语言处理以及执行功能（EF）。最近的研究表明，7-17 岁儿童阅读能力的提高与在动词生成过程中认知控制区域的更大激活有关，动词生成是一种融合语言和认知控制能力的任务。本研究旨在确定与 EF 特定相关的神经回路与阅读能力之间的关系。我们专注于背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）之间的功能连接，该区域与 EF 有关，是动词生成任务期间额顶网络的一部分，以及 17 名 8-12 岁典型阅读者的阅读能力。结果表明，在生成动词时，左右 DLPFC 与与认知控制和视觉处理相关的区域之间存在正功能连接。阅读能力的提高与左右 DLPFC 之间以及右偏视觉处理区域之间更大的功能连接呈正相关。本研究强调了动词生成和阅读过程中与 EF 相关的神经回路的重要性，并指出了右侧枕叶皮层在生成动词以及在典型阅读者中自动单词识别中的作用。
