Dyslexia, gender, and brain imaging

Journal/Book: Neuropsychologia. 1999; 37: the Boulevard Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford Ox5 1GB, England. Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd. 521-536.

Abstract: Future brain imaging studies of dyslexia should have a sufficient number of males and females to detect possible gender differences in the neurological underpinning of this disorder. Detailed knowledge about such differences may clarify our understanding of the structural and functional impairments which lead to the phonological deficits that characterize dyslexia. Functional brain imaging studies have shown that males and females exhibit different patterns of brain activation during phonological processing. Further differences between the brains of males and females have been suggested by studies of normal brain development, morphology, and functional activation during reading. Animal studies have shown that lesions, similar to those seen in postmortem studies of dyslexia, affect rapid auditory processing in males, but not in females. The targe body of research on gender differences in brain development, functional organization, and activation during reading tasks urges separation of males and females in dyslexia research in order to minimize variance and to detect subtle, but functionally-relevant, differences. Well-controlled studies, with large numbers of male and female dyslexics, may produce more sensitive and accurate identification of the neurological substrates of dyslexia.

Note: Review Lambe EK, Yale Univ, Sch Med, Neurobiol Sect, Interdept Neurosci Program, 333 Cedar St, POB 208074, New Haven,CT 06520 USA

Keyword(s): neurodevelopment; language; auditory cortex; lateralization; LEARNING-IMPAIRED CHILDREN; POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY; CORPUS-CALLOSUM MORPHOLOGY; DEVELOPMENTAL DYSLEXIA; SEX-DIFFERENCES; HEMISPHERIC-SPECIALIZATION; PLANUM-TEMPORALE; JAPANESE MACAQUES; WORD RECOGNITION; RHESUS-MONKEY

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