Visual Scanning and Reading Ability in Normal and Dyslexic Children

Ferretti, Giovanni; Mazzotti, Sara; Brizzolara, Daniela

doi:10.1155/2008/564561

Cited by 69 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…These results are consistent with recent predictive and longitudinal studies that suggest a specific role of magnocellular-dorsal as well as visual spatial attentional systems during the development of early reading abilities (e.g. Boets et al, 2008;Ferretti et al, 2008;Kevan & Pammer, 2008, 2009Plaza & Cohen, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Moreover, recent longitudinal studies have suggested that magnocellular-dorsal stream sensitivity and attentional processing, in addition to phonological awareness, is an important predictor of early reading abilities (e.g. Boets, Wouters, van Wieringen, De Smedt, & Ghesquière, 2008;Ferretti, Mazzotti, & Brizzolara, 2008;Kevan & Pammer, 2009;Plaza & Cohen, 2006).…”

Section: Introduction Dmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Visual spatial attention and speech segmentation are both impaired in preschoolers at familial risk for developmental dyslexia

et al. 2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Phonological skills are foundational of reading acquisition and impaired phonological processing is widely assumed to characterize dyslexic individuals. However, reading by phonological decoding also requires rapid selection of sublexical orthographic units through serial attentional orienting, and recent studies have shown that visual spatial attention is impaired in dyslexic children. Our study investigated these different neurocognitive dysfunctions, before reading acquisition, in a sample of preschoolers including children with (N=20) and without (N=67) familial risk for developmental dyslexia. Children were tested on phonological skills, rapid automatized naming, and visual spatial attention. At-risk children presented deficits in both visual spatial attention and syllabic segmentation at the group level. Moreover, the combination of visual spatial attention and syllabic segmentation scores was more reliable than either single measure for the identification of at-risk children. These findings suggest that both visuo-attentional and perisylvian-auditory dysfunctions might adversely affect reading acquisition, and may offer a new approach for early identification and remediation of developmental dyslexia.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Introduction Dmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visual spatial attention and speech segmentation are both impaired in preschoolers at familial risk for developmental dyslexia

et al. 2010

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…To this aim, it is worth noting that the reading performance of dyslexic children has been shown to improve following a specific training for visuospatial attention (e.g., Facoetti, Lorusso, Paganoni, Umiltà, & Mascetti, 2003;Geiger, Lettvin, & Fanhle, 1994). Moreover, longitudinal studies have shown that visual attention, in addition to syllable awareness, is one of the most important predictors of early reading abilities (e.g., Ferretti, Mazzotti, & Brizzolara, 2008;Plaza & Cohen, 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multisensory Spatial Attention Deficits Are Predictive of Phonological Decoding Skills in Developmental Dyslexia

Facoetti

Trussardi

Ruffino

et al. 2010

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

246

242

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Although the dominant approach posits that developmental dyslexia arises from deficits in systems that are exclusively linguistic in nature (i.e., phonological deficit theory), dyslexics show a variety of lower level deficits in sensory and attentional processing. Although their link to the reading disorder remains contentious, recent empirical and computational studies suggest that spatial attention plays an important role in phonological decoding. The present behavioral study investigated exogenous spatial attention in dyslexic children and matched controls by measuring RTs to visual and auditory stimuli in cued-detection tasks. Dyslexics with poor nonword decoding accuracy showed a slower time course of visual and auditory (multisensory) spatial attention compared with both chronological age and reading level controls as well as compared with dyslexics with slow but accurate nonword decoding. Individual differences in the time course of multisensory spatial attention accounted for 31% of unique variance in the nonword reading performance of the entire dyslexic sample after controlling for age, IQ, and phonological skills. The present study suggests that multisensory "sluggish attention shifting"-related to a temporoparietal dysfunction-selectively impairs the sublexical mechanisms that are critical for reading development. These findings may offer a new approach for early identification and remediation of developmental dyslexia.

show abstract

“…Although this fact has been known for more than 20 years, little is known about the causalities here: do these abnormal gaze patterns lead to dyslexic reading, or are they a consequence of reading difficulties potentially reflecting compensatory mechanisms? In order to address this question, a non-lexical and non-orthographical reading paradigm was developed (Corbic et al, 2007; Günther et al, 2012b; for the earlier work using the “Z-reading paradigm” see Ferretti et al, 2008). This “Landolt” paradigm allows investigating eye movements during reading without any influence of lexical information such as lexical frequency, phonotactics, or lexical status (Zschornak and Zeschmann, 2008; available at http://www.tguenthert.de/thesis/files/archive-2008.html; Zschornak et al, 2012; available at https://www.thieme-connect.de/ejournals/html/10.1055/s-0032-1304900).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying brain systems for gaze orienting during reading: fMRI investigation of the Landolt paradigm

Hillen¹,

Günther²,

Kohlen³

et al. 2013

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Landolt reading paradigm was created in order to dissociate effects of eye movements and attention from lexical, syntactic, and sub-lexical processing. While previous eye-tracking and behavioral findings support the usefulness of the paradigm, it remains to be shown that the paradigm actually relies on the brain networks for occulomotor control and attention, but not on systems for lexical/syntactic/orthographic processing. Here, 20 healthy volunteers underwent fMRI scanning while reading sentences (with syntax) or unconnected lists of written stimuli (no syntax) consisting of words (with semantics) or pseudowords (no semantics). In an additional “Landolt reading” condition, all letters were replaced by closed circles, which should be scanned for targets (Landolt's rings) in a reading-like fashion from left to right. A conjunction analysis of all five conditions revealed the visual scanning network which involved bilateral visual cortex, premotor cortex, and superior parietal cortex, but which did not include regions for semantics, syntax, or orthography. Contrasting the Landolt reading condition with all other regions revealed additional involvement of the right superior parietal cortex (areas 7A/7P/7PC) and postcentral gyrus (area 2) involved in deliberate gaze shifting. These neuroimaging findings demonstrate for the first time that the linguistic and orthographic brain network can be dissociated from a pure gaze-orienting network with the Landolt paradigm. Consequently, the Landolt paradigm may provide novel insights into the contributions of linguistic and non-linguistic factors on reading failure e.g., in developmental dyslexia.

show abstract

Visual Scanning and Reading Ability in Normal and Dyslexic Children

Cited by 69 publications

References 14 publications

Visual spatial attention and speech segmentation are both impaired in preschoolers at familial risk for developmental dyslexia

Visual spatial attention and speech segmentation are both impaired in preschoolers at familial risk for developmental dyslexia

Multisensory Spatial Attention Deficits Are Predictive of Phonological Decoding Skills in Developmental Dyslexia

Identifying brain systems for gaze orienting during reading: fMRI investigation of the Landolt paradigm

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About