Patterns of Neural Functional Connectivity in Infants at Familial Risk of Developmental Dyslexia

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Genetics

Background:

• Developmental dyslexia is a common heritable learning disability impacting 7-10% of the population.
• Individuals with dyslexia exhibit altered neural network organization in language and reading areas.
• The early emergence of these neural alterations remains largely unknown.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if large-scale neural functional connectivity (FC) is altered in infants with a familial history of dyslexia (FHD).
• To determine if these early FC alterations predict later language and reading development.

Main Methods:

• A cohort study included 98 infants (35 with FHD, 63 without) recruited from Boston Children's Hospital.
• Structural and resting-state functional MRI scans were acquired.
• Multivariate pattern analysis identified distinct FC patterns differentiating infants with and without FHD.

Main Results:

• Infants with FHD showed distinct FC patterns in the left fusiform gyrus compared to controls.
• Classification accuracy for identifying FHD based on FC was 0.55.
• Key connections involved the left fusiform gyrus with frontal and parietal language/attention networks.

Conclusions:

• Familial history of dyslexia is associated with atypical functional connectivity in infants.
• These early neural alterations may impact word form recognition during reading acquisition.
• Longitudinal studies are needed to link these early network differences to later reading abilities.