News Release

Visual processing is slower in children with dyslexia

Children with dyslexia are slower to pick up visual evidence, which is echoed by their brain activity

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Society for Neuroscience

Visual Processing is Slower in Children with Dyslexia

image: Experimental paradigm. view more 

Credit: Manning et al., JNeurosci 2021

Dyslexia impacts more than reading ability. Children with dyslexia pick up visual information slower than their typically developing peers, according to new research published in JNeurosci.

Some researchers believe dyslexia is a visual processing disorder at its core because a brain pathway involved in processing motion is also altered in dyslexia. Still, a debate rages over whether impaired motion processing drives dyslexia. Some have argued that we may be able to improve dyslexic reading skills by training visual processing skills.

In a new study by Manning et al., children from ages six to fourteen watched a mass of moving dots and identified their average direction of motion while the researchers measured their brain activity with EEG. Mathematical modelling of their response time and accuracy revealed the dyslexic children took longer to gather visual evidence than their typically developing peers. The behavioral differences corresponded to differences in brain activity, too. Synchronized activity in centro-parietal regions, areas involved in decision making, steadily increased until the child made a decision. This ramping up of brain activity happened more gradually in children with dyslexia. These results suggest altered motion processing and decision-making in dyslexia, the cause of which remains unknown.

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Paper title: Visual Motion and Decision-making in Dyslexia: Reduced Accumulation of Sensory Evidence and Related Neural Dynamics

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About JNeurosci

JNeurosci, the Society for Neuroscience's first journal, was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today, the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact, while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship.

About The Society for Neuroscience

The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 37,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.


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