Neuroscience Advances in Reading Research

Gal Ben-Yehudah, PhDLearning, Research and Development Center

University of Pittsburgh

October 31, 2007, Mofet Institute, Tel-Aviv

(& the brain-education divide)

What to expect …

Part 1: Brain-education divide

What is neuroscience? questions

Part 2: Typical reading questions

Part 3: Atypical reading questions

Historical perspective

Early 1990’s - functional imaging becomes a tool in cognitive research

Mid 1990’s - “Early Head Start” campaign

‘Brain-based’ - curricula, interventions, toys

Education and the brain

A bridge too far! (Bruer, Educational Researcher, 1997)

Neuroscientists should use caution when speculating on the educational implications of brain research (Bruer, Nature Neuroscience, 2002)

Clear guidelines for neuroscience use in evidence-based (early) educational practice (Hirsh-Pasek & Bruer, Science, 2007)

Santiago Declaration, March 2007 “…Neuroscientific research, at this stage in its

development, does not offer scientific guidelines for policy, practice, or parenting.”

“Current brain research offers a promissory note, however, for the future. Developmental models and our understanding of learning will be aided by studies that reveal the effects of experience on brain systems working in concert…”

www.jsmf.org/declaration

What is Neuroscience? Cell

System

Computational

» Cognitive Neuroscience

Location of brain activity

Methods based on blood flow (metabolism): PET (positron emission tomography) fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)

axial

sagital

coronal

Time course of brain activity

Method based on electrical activity (at scalp) ERP (event related potentials)

Prior exposure to neuroscience research related to education

Poll:

Have you heard a report, read a newspaper

story, or been exposed in another way to

neuroscience research in your field?

Part 1: Questions

Brain-education divide

Cognitive neuroscience methods

Part 2: Neuroscience contributions to reading research

Typical Development

Familiarity with research on reading

Poll:

Are you familiar with research in the area

of reading and/or reading disabilities?

Representation of knowledge that supports reading

Types of knowledge: Sound system - phonology Written form - orthography Meaning - semantic

Mapping print to sound “Phonological recoding” (Share, 1995) Decoding

Broad generalizations

Sensory systems Auditory Visual Somatosensory

‘Classic’ language regions Wernicke Broca

Motor system Articulatory planning and

execution

motorSomato-sensory

Where& How

auditory

WernickeÕsarea

Objectrecognition/semantics

BrocaÕs area

premotor

visual

Orthography in the brain

A Visual word form area?

Cohen et al., Brain, 2002

Phonology in the brain

Input phonology Acoustic/phonetic code

Output phonology Articulatory code

Association process Auditory-motor interface

Hickok & Poeppel, Cognition, 2004

Mapping orthography to phonology

Mapping principles Graphic units + language levels (Perfetti, 2003)

Cross language differences lead to different representations and “ways” to read.

Alphabetic C A T => /k/ /æ/ /t/

Nonalphabetic => /huo/3

Extensive overlap in the reading network Unique to Chinese reading

Bilateral occipito-temporal regions Left middle frontal region

Chinese > Alphabetic Alphabetic > Chinese

Tan et al. (2005)

Reading in alphabetic vs. nonalphabetic writing systems

Brain activity reflects cross-language differences in mapping principles

Network for reading

Reading different items Nonwords > Words

English readers Nonwords > Words

Italian > English readers

Paulesu et al., 2000

What about Hebrew?

A cost for reading single words with missing vowels (Frost, 1995)

No cost when words are in a sentence or text.

Morphology is one level of ‘grain-size’ in Hebrew

Hebrew without vowels

Hebrew with vowels

Frost, Developmental Science, Commentary 2006

Developmental changes

Implicit reading task Correlated brain activity and

reading skill

LH RH

Turkeltaub et al., Nature Neuroscience, 2003

Part 2: Questions

Orthography Phonology Mapping print-to-sound Similar and different patterns of brain activity

across writing systems

Part 3: Neuroscience contributions to reading research

Atypical Development

Developmental dyslexia

Reading difficulty, despite average intelligence and educational opportunity

Phonological processing deficit

Eden & Moats, Nature Neuroscience, Review 2002

Abnormal pattern of brain activity in dyslexic children

Children 10-13 yrs Nonword rhyme

judgment (LEAT, JETE)

Shaywitz et al., Biological Psychiatry, 2002

Dyslexia: biological unity across alphabetic languages

Dyslexic adults Italian, French, English

NI > DYS

Paulesu et al., Science, 2001

Dyslexic children: Phonological intervention changes brain activity

Children (8 yrs) 105 hr of a costumed

phonological intervention 1-year post intervention

brain activity shows a more normal profile

Shaywitz et al., Biological Psychiatry, 2004

Pre-intervention

1-yr post intervention

Dyslexic adults: Phonological intervention changes brain activity Adults 112 hr of Lindamood-Bell intervention Post intervention

Increased activity in LH regions seen in typical readers Compensatory activity in RH perisylvian regions

Eden et al., Neuron, 2004

What have we learned?

Cognitive neuroscience Representation of knowledge that supports

typical and atypical reading A universal reading network, with important

language-specific modifications Brain plasticity in children and adults that have

persistent reading difficulties

Some final thoughts

The importance of integrating information across disciplines.

Educational observations are a basis for future neuroscience research.

Neuroscience enables us to understand the biological basis of cognition.

Part 3: Questions

Developmental dyslexia Abnormal brain activity Effects of remediation on brain activity

General questions Revisit brain-education divide

From neuroscience to educational practice – a reasonable leap?

Poll:

After listening to this talk, what do you think:

today, can neuroscience make a practical

contribution to educational practice?

Thank You

Web sites for further information on the brain-education debate: Learning sciences and brain research:

http://www.teach-the-brain.org Brain and Learning:

http://www.brainandlearning.eu International Mind, Brain, and Education Society:

http://www.imbes.org