Reduced Structural Connectivity Between Left Auditory Thalamus and the Motion-Sensitive Planum Temporale in Developmental Dyslexia

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Reduced Structural Connectivity Between Left Auditory Thalamus and the Motion-Sensitive Planum Temporale in Developmental Dyslexia. / Tschentscher, Nadja; Ruisinger, Anja; Blank, Helen; Díaz, Begoña; von Kriegstein, Katharina.

in: J NEUROSCI, Jahrgang 39, Nr. 9, 27.02.2019, S. 1720-1732.

Publikationen: SCORING: Beitrag in Fachzeitschrift/ZeitungSCORING: ZeitschriftenaufsatzForschungBegutachtung

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@article{ca1ff664636a4f1ebd35df9731f41373,
title = "Reduced Structural Connectivity Between Left Auditory Thalamus and the Motion-Sensitive Planum Temporale in Developmental Dyslexia",
abstract = "Developmental dyslexia is characterized by the inability to acquire typical reading and writing skills. Dyslexia has been frequently linked to cerebral cortex alterations; however, recent evidence also points toward sensory thalamus dysfunctions: dyslexics showed reduced responses in the left auditory thalamus (medial geniculate body, MGB) during speech processing in contrast to neurotypical readers. In addition, in the visual modality, dyslexics have reduced structural connectivity between the left visual thalamus (lateral geniculate nucleus, LGN) and V5/MT, a cerebral cortex region involved in visual movement processing. Higher LGN-V5/MT connectivity in dyslexics was associated with the faster rapid naming of letters and numbers (RANln), a measure that is highly correlated with reading proficiency. Here, we tested two hypotheses that were directly derived from these previous findings. First, we tested the hypothesis that dyslexics have reduced structural connectivity between the left MGB and the auditory-motion-sensitive part of the left planum temporale (mPT). Second, we hypothesized that the amount of left mPT-MGB connectivity correlates with dyslexics RANln scores. Using diffusion tensor imaging-based probabilistic tracking, we show that male adults with developmental dyslexia have reduced structural connectivity between the left MGB and the left mPT, confirming the first hypothesis. Stronger left mPT-MGB connectivity was not associated with faster RANln scores in dyslexics, but was in neurotypical readers. Our findings provide the first evidence that reduced cortico-thalamic connectivity in the auditory modality is a feature of developmental dyslexia and it may also affect reading-related cognitive abilities in neurotypical readers.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Developmental dyslexia is one of the most widespread learning disabilities. Although previous neuroimaging research mainly focused on pathomechanisms of dyslexia at the cerebral cortex level, several lines of evidence suggest an atypical functioning of subcortical sensory structures. By means of diffusion tensor imaging, we here show that dyslexic male adults have reduced white matter connectivity in a cortico-thalamic auditory pathway between the left auditory motion-sensitive planum temporale and the left medial geniculate body. Connectivity strength of this pathway was associated with measures of reading fluency in neurotypical readers. This is novel evidence on the neurocognitive correlates of reading proficiency, highlighting the importance of cortico-subcortical interactions between regions involved in the processing of spectrotemporally complex sound.",
keywords = "Adult, Auditory Cortex/diagnostic imaging, Connectome, Dyslexia/diagnostic imaging, Geniculate Bodies/diagnostic imaging, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male",
author = "Nadja Tschentscher and Anja Ruisinger and Helen Blank and Bego{\~n}a D{\'i}az and {von Kriegstein}, Katharina",
note = "Copyright {\textcopyright} 2019 the authors 0270-6474/19/391720-13$15.00/0.",
year = "2019",
month = feb,
day = "27",
doi = "10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1435-18.2018",
language = "English",
volume = "39",
pages = "1720--1732",
journal = "J NEUROSCI",
issn = "0270-6474",
publisher = "Society for Neuroscience",
number = "9",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Reduced Structural Connectivity Between Left Auditory Thalamus and the Motion-Sensitive Planum Temporale in Developmental Dyslexia

AU - Tschentscher, Nadja

AU - Ruisinger, Anja

AU - Blank, Helen

AU - Díaz, Begoña

AU - von Kriegstein, Katharina

N1 - Copyright © 2019 the authors 0270-6474/19/391720-13$15.00/0.

PY - 2019/2/27

Y1 - 2019/2/27

N2 - Developmental dyslexia is characterized by the inability to acquire typical reading and writing skills. Dyslexia has been frequently linked to cerebral cortex alterations; however, recent evidence also points toward sensory thalamus dysfunctions: dyslexics showed reduced responses in the left auditory thalamus (medial geniculate body, MGB) during speech processing in contrast to neurotypical readers. In addition, in the visual modality, dyslexics have reduced structural connectivity between the left visual thalamus (lateral geniculate nucleus, LGN) and V5/MT, a cerebral cortex region involved in visual movement processing. Higher LGN-V5/MT connectivity in dyslexics was associated with the faster rapid naming of letters and numbers (RANln), a measure that is highly correlated with reading proficiency. Here, we tested two hypotheses that were directly derived from these previous findings. First, we tested the hypothesis that dyslexics have reduced structural connectivity between the left MGB and the auditory-motion-sensitive part of the left planum temporale (mPT). Second, we hypothesized that the amount of left mPT-MGB connectivity correlates with dyslexics RANln scores. Using diffusion tensor imaging-based probabilistic tracking, we show that male adults with developmental dyslexia have reduced structural connectivity between the left MGB and the left mPT, confirming the first hypothesis. Stronger left mPT-MGB connectivity was not associated with faster RANln scores in dyslexics, but was in neurotypical readers. Our findings provide the first evidence that reduced cortico-thalamic connectivity in the auditory modality is a feature of developmental dyslexia and it may also affect reading-related cognitive abilities in neurotypical readers.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Developmental dyslexia is one of the most widespread learning disabilities. Although previous neuroimaging research mainly focused on pathomechanisms of dyslexia at the cerebral cortex level, several lines of evidence suggest an atypical functioning of subcortical sensory structures. By means of diffusion tensor imaging, we here show that dyslexic male adults have reduced white matter connectivity in a cortico-thalamic auditory pathway between the left auditory motion-sensitive planum temporale and the left medial geniculate body. Connectivity strength of this pathway was associated with measures of reading fluency in neurotypical readers. This is novel evidence on the neurocognitive correlates of reading proficiency, highlighting the importance of cortico-subcortical interactions between regions involved in the processing of spectrotemporally complex sound.

AB - Developmental dyslexia is characterized by the inability to acquire typical reading and writing skills. Dyslexia has been frequently linked to cerebral cortex alterations; however, recent evidence also points toward sensory thalamus dysfunctions: dyslexics showed reduced responses in the left auditory thalamus (medial geniculate body, MGB) during speech processing in contrast to neurotypical readers. In addition, in the visual modality, dyslexics have reduced structural connectivity between the left visual thalamus (lateral geniculate nucleus, LGN) and V5/MT, a cerebral cortex region involved in visual movement processing. Higher LGN-V5/MT connectivity in dyslexics was associated with the faster rapid naming of letters and numbers (RANln), a measure that is highly correlated with reading proficiency. Here, we tested two hypotheses that were directly derived from these previous findings. First, we tested the hypothesis that dyslexics have reduced structural connectivity between the left MGB and the auditory-motion-sensitive part of the left planum temporale (mPT). Second, we hypothesized that the amount of left mPT-MGB connectivity correlates with dyslexics RANln scores. Using diffusion tensor imaging-based probabilistic tracking, we show that male adults with developmental dyslexia have reduced structural connectivity between the left MGB and the left mPT, confirming the first hypothesis. Stronger left mPT-MGB connectivity was not associated with faster RANln scores in dyslexics, but was in neurotypical readers. Our findings provide the first evidence that reduced cortico-thalamic connectivity in the auditory modality is a feature of developmental dyslexia and it may also affect reading-related cognitive abilities in neurotypical readers.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Developmental dyslexia is one of the most widespread learning disabilities. Although previous neuroimaging research mainly focused on pathomechanisms of dyslexia at the cerebral cortex level, several lines of evidence suggest an atypical functioning of subcortical sensory structures. By means of diffusion tensor imaging, we here show that dyslexic male adults have reduced white matter connectivity in a cortico-thalamic auditory pathway between the left auditory motion-sensitive planum temporale and the left medial geniculate body. Connectivity strength of this pathway was associated with measures of reading fluency in neurotypical readers. This is novel evidence on the neurocognitive correlates of reading proficiency, highlighting the importance of cortico-subcortical interactions between regions involved in the processing of spectrotemporally complex sound.

KW - Adult

KW - Auditory Cortex/diagnostic imaging

KW - Connectome

KW - Dyslexia/diagnostic imaging

KW - Geniculate Bodies/diagnostic imaging

KW - Humans

KW - Magnetic Resonance Imaging

KW - Male

U2 - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1435-18.2018

DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1435-18.2018

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 30643025

VL - 39

SP - 1720

EP - 1732

JO - J NEUROSCI

JF - J NEUROSCI

SN - 0270-6474

IS - 9

ER -