Dyslexia News and Research

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Dyslexia is a learning disability that makes itself manifest primarily as a difficulty with the visual notation of speech or written language, particularly with reading the various man-made writing systems. It is separate and distinct from reading difficulties resulting from other causes, such as a non-neurological deficiency with vision or hearing, or from poor or inadequate reading instruction. This suggests that dyslexia results from differences in how the brain processes written and spoken language.

UC San Francisco researchers use brain scans to predict reading difficulties in young children

UC San Francisco researchers have used brain scans to predict how young children learn to read, giving clinicians a possible tool to spot children with dyslexia and other reading difficulties before they experience reading challenges.

16 Sep 2014

Non-invasive functional neuroimaging tools help characterize how brain activity disrupted in dyslexia

A new study in Biological Psychiatry maps the circuitry of dyslexia. Dyslexia, the most commonly diagnosed learning disability in the United States, is a neurological reading disability that occurs when the regions of the brain that process written language don't function normally.

28 Aug 2014

Study: Natural-terrain schoolyards help reduce children's stress and inattention

Playing in schoolyards that feature natural habitats and trees and not just asphalt and recreation equipment reduces children's stress and inattention, according to a University of Colorado Boulder study.

23 Jul 2014

Study: 35% of adults with dyslexia report childhood physical abuse

Adults who have dyslexia are much more likely to report they were physically abused before they turned 18 than their peers without dyslexia, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Toronto and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill.

3 Jul 2014

Aston University plans for new Medical School to train new generation of doctors

Aston University (UK) has announced plans for a new Medical School which will train a new generation of doctors in Birmingham and the West Midlands.

12 Jun 2014

Four-year educational study offers hope for children with intellectual disability

The findings of a pioneering four-year educational study offer hope for thousands of children identified with intellectual disability or low IQ who have very little, if any, reading ability.

22 May 2014

Novartis Institute researcher receives second annual Andrew Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences

Carnegie Mellon University will award the second annual Andrew Carnegie Prize in Mind and Brain Sciences to Ricardo Dolmetsch, global head of neuroscience at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research.

8 Apr 2014

Experts sound alarm about the dangers of industrial chemicals on children’s health

In a Review published in The Lancet Neurology, two of the world’s leading experts on the link between environment and children’s health are sounding the alarm on the dangers of industrial chemicals. They are calling on countries to transform their chemical risk-assessment procedures in order to protect children from everyday toxins that may be causing a global “silent epidemic” of brain development disorders.

18 Feb 2014

Positive correlation between white matter quality and addition and multiplication proficiency

A new study led by Professor Bert De Smedt (Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, KU Leuven) has found that healthy 12-year-olds who score well in addition and multiplication have higher-quality white matter tracts.

28 Jan 2014

Novel brain-scanning technique maps flow of visual information in brain with unique accuracy

Every time you open your eyes, visual information flows into your brain, which interprets what you're seeing. Now, for the first time, MIT neuroscientists have noninvasively mapped this flow of information in the human brain with unique accuracy, using a novel brain-scanning technique.

28 Jan 2014

Less gray matter in brain not linked to reading disabilities in people with dyslexia

In people with dyslexia, less gray matter in the brain has been linked to reading disabilities, but now new evidence suggests this is a consequence of poorer reading experiences and not the root cause of the disorder.

15 Jan 2014

Neurocognitive abnormalities ‘fundamental’ to schizophrenia

Rare copy-number variants that confer a high risk for schizophrenia or autism are associated with impaired cognition in carriers without psychiatric disorders, researchers report in Nature.

19 Dec 2013

PPDC receives $1.5 million grant to advance pediatric medical devices

For medical devices, as with many medicines, the market for children is a small fraction of the adult market, and there are far fewer child-sized devices. But, of course, the need exists, even if proper devices may not.

12 Dec 2013

Lord Walton of Detchant receives honorary degree from Northumbria University

Northumbria University, Newcastle has today awarded Lord Walton of Detchant with an honorary degree in recognition of his long career as a world-leading neurologist.

4 Dec 2013

3T MRI scanner allows Polish scientists to perform structural and functional imaging of human brain

The Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology in Warsaw launches research programs, which require state-of-the-art magnetic resonance scanner.

3 Dec 2013

Auditory processing disorder diagnosis: an interview with Dr Doris-Eva Bamiou, UCL Ear Institute

It is a listening or hearing disorder, which is due to the brain’s defective analysis of sounds, so that individuals who are affected with this disorder cannot make sense of what they hear.

26 Nov 2013

Study identifies new genes involved in autism

A scientific study published on the journal Molecular Psychiatry identifies new genes involved in autism, a polygenic disorder that is difficult to diagnose and treat. Autism spectrum disorders represent a group of neurodevelopmental disorders which affect one out of 80-100 children.

23 Oct 2013

E-Readers may help people with dyslexia read more easily

As e-readers grow in popularity as convenient alternatives to traditional books, researchers at the Smithsonian have found that convenience may not be their only benefit. The team discovered that when e-readers are set up to display only a few words per line, some people with dyslexia can read more easily, quickly and with greater comprehension. Their findings are published in the Sept. 18 issue of the journal PLOS ONE.

19 Sep 2013

Study looks at correlation between reading ability and brain structure

A combination of brain scans and reading tests has revealed that several regions in the brain are responsible for allowing humans to read.

6 Aug 2013

Researchers identify neural pathways involved in word learning among humans

For the first time scientists have identified how a pathway in the brain which is unique to humans allows us to learn new words. The average adult's vocabulary consists of about 30,000 words. This ability seems unique to humans as even the species closest to us -- chimps -- manage to learn no more than 100.

23 Jul 2013