Neuroscience Advances in Reading Research Gal Ben-Yehudah, PhD Learning, 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…” 

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

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. AlphabeticC 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 > AlphabeticAlphabetic > 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 LHRH 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 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: Brain and Learning: International Mind, Brain, and Education Society: