Dyslexia Seen In Brain Scans of Pre-School Children

dryriver writes "Brain scans may allow detection of dyslexia in pre-school children even before they start to read, say researchers. A U.S. team found tell-tale signs on scans that have already been seen in adults with the condition. And these brain differences could be a cause rather than a consequence of dyslexia — something unknown until now — the Journal of Neuroscience reports. Scans could allow early diagnosis and intervention, experts hope. The part of the brain affected is called the Arcuate Fasciculus. Among the 40 school-entry children they studied they found some had shrinkage of this brain region, which processes word sounds and language. They asked the same children to do several different types of pre-reading tests, such as trying out different sounds in words. Those children with a smaller Arcuate Fasciculus had lower scores."

Excellent! There pre-reading tests for dyslexia!

[gnoshi]

What I got out of the article was not that 'scans could allow early detection and diagnosis', because deploying brain-scans on children to 'detect' a disorder like this is ludicrous (due to the low base rate and high cost of imaging). What I got was that there are 'pre-reading tests' which are apparently useful to detect dyslexia - otherwise you couldn't correlate the brain imaging results with the results of those pre-reading tests, and then call the imaging a 'dyslexia test' right?

Hell, maybe the researchers could develop a battery of pre-reading tests and then look at the correlation of the tests to the smaller arcuate fasciculus to choose good diagnostic tests. Assuming that the smaller arcuate fasciculus is actually causal in dyslexia, of course.

(Note: I am broadly cynical about correlational brain imaging research such as this. It can be good. It is almost invariably overstated.)

Labels

[Ol Olsoc]

We are hell bent to label everyone....

See Johnny over there? He's high functioning autustic.

Little Suzy to his right? Textbook Dyslexic!

Little Ralph? Oh, very ADHD.

.....and on, and on, and on, until we find out that only 10 percent of the population is "normal" - whatever that is. Then we'll be able to drug the little bastards up, and turn them into model citizens.

Re:Another cause of dyslexia

[brantondaveperson]

Irlen Syndrome is a scam. Suspiciously overpriced colored overlays, and lo-and-behold everyone who they test ends up having it. If you have children who are dyslexic, save your money and spend it on tuition instead.

Evidently in these cases dyslexia is caused by certain colors being transmitted to the wrong areas of the brain.

Evidently implies evidence. Of which there is none.

See: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21930551 [nih.gov]