Diffusion Tensor Imaging reveals correlations between brain connectivity and children's reading abilities

Abstract

This study demonstrated the relationship between brain connectivity and children’s reading abilities. For the behavioral part, the participants received proper reading interventions based on their responsiveness, and the standardized behavioral tests were administered throughout the process. For the imaging part, both T1-weighted images and diffusion weighted images were acquired. Nine cortical regions in each brain hemisphere were identified as regions of interest (ROI). The probabilistic streamlines connecting each pairing of the nine regions were calculated and used to estimate brain connectivity. The estimates were then used to correlate with children’s reading measures. Eight significant correlations were found, four of which were connections between the insular cortex and angular gyrus. The results are suggestive of a key role of connection between insular cortex and angular gyrus in mediating reading behavior. In spite of the limited sample size, the redundancy in the spread of group clusters is indicative of a relation between brain connectivity and children’s responsiveness to intervention.