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Cited by 553Reading and Literacy DevelopmentNeurobiology of Language and BilingualismDevelopmental and Educational Neuropsychology

Explicit and implicit processing of words and pseudowords by adult developmental dyslexics

Brunswick, N., McCrory, E., Price, C. J., Frith, C. D., Frith, U.·1999·Brain
DOI 10.1093/brain/122.10.1901
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Abstract

Two groups of male university students who had been diagnosed as dyslexic when younger, and two groups of control subjects of similar age and IQ to the dyslexics, were scanned whilst reading aloud and during a task where reading was implicit. The dyslexics performed less well than their peers on a range of literacy tasks and were strikingly impaired on phonological tasks. In the reading aloud experiment, simple words and pseudowords were presented at a slow pace so that reading accuracy was equal for dyslexics and controls. Relative to rest, both normal and dyslexic groups activated the same peri- and extra-sylvian regions of the left hemisphere that are known to be involved in reading. However, the dyslexic readers showed less activation than controls in the left posterior inferior temporal cortex [Brodmann area (BA) 37, or Wernicke's Wortschatz], left cerebellum, left thalamus and medial extrastriate cortex. In the implicit reading experiment, word and pseudoword processing was contrasted to visually matched false fonts while subjects performed a feature detection paradigm. The dyslexic readers showed reduced activation in BA 37 relative to normals suggesting that this group difference, seen in both experiments, resides in highly automated aspects of the reading process. Since BA 37 has been implicated previously in modality-independent naming, the reduced activation may indicate a specific impairment in lexical retrieval. Interestingly, during the reading aloud experiment only, there was increased activation for the dyslexics relative to the controls in a pre-motor region of Broca's area (BA 6/44). We attribute this result to the enforced use of an effortful compensatory strategy involving sublexical assembly of articulatory routines. The results confirm previous findings that dyslexic readers process written stimuli atypically, based on abnormal functioning of the left hemisphere reading system. More specifically, we localize this deficit to the neural system underlying lexical retrieval.

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Crossref · 10.1093/brain/122.10.1901

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  • Activation for written words was less than that for unfamiliar pseudowords or pictures of objects.

    “At the functional level, the abstract visual word processing claim was challenged by observations that activation for written words (that have abstract visual word form representations) was less than that for stimuli that don't have abstract word representations such as (a) unfamiliar pseudowords (Brunswick et al., 1999; Fujimaki et al., 1999; Tagamets et al., 2000; Xu et al., 2001) or (b) pict”

    From A review and synthesis of the first 20years of PET and fMRI studies of heard speech, spoken language and reading (2012) · cites this paper as Brunswick et al., 1999

  • A large number of studies, using various methods, have evidenced a reproducible activation of the left fusiform gyrus during reading.

    “A large number of studies, using various methods, have evidenced a reproducible activation of the left fusiform gyrus during reading.”

    From Specialization within the ventral stream: the case for the visual word form area (2004) · cites this paper as Brunswick et al., 1999

  • Activation in the left fusiform gyrus during reading can be identified merely by contrasting word reading relative to rest, either with PET or with fMRI.

    “Activation in this region can be identified merely by contrasting word reading relative to rest, either with PET or with fMRI (Beauregard et al., 1997; Brunswick et al., 1999; Dehaene et al., 2002; Fiez et al., 1999; Paulesu et al., 2000; Wagner et al., 1998).”

    From Specialization within the ventral stream: the case for the visual word form area (2004) · cites this paper as Brunswick et al., 1999

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Authors
Brunswick, N., McCrory, E., Price, C. J., Frith, C. D., & Frith, U.
Affiliations
  • UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology (GB)
  • University College London (GB)
Corresponding author
Brunswick, N.
ORCID
Venue
Brain
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
1999-10
Volume
122
Issue
10
Pages
1901-1917
ISSN
  • 0006-8950 (ISSN-L)
  • 1460-2156
DOI
10.1093/brain/122.10.1901
OpenAlex
W2116317598
Cited by
553
References
64
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 27 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 26 · 2012: 36
FWCI
44.78
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Brain (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • UCL Discovery (University College London) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • Wellcome Trust (051067)
  • Medical Research Council
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Neuropsychology and Physiological Psychology › Developmental and Educational Neuropsychology
Keywords
developmental dyslexia, word processing, pseudowords, Wernicke's area, word retrieval, phonological processing, compensatory reading strategies, Broca's area, cerebellum, thalamus, reading aloud, feature detection
MeSH terms
Adult, Audiovisual Aids, Behavior, Brain, Brain Mapping, Cerebrovascular Circulation, Dyslexia, Frontal Lobe, Humans, Intelligence Tests, Language Tests, Male, Psychometrics, Reading, Temporal Lobe, Time Factors, Tomography, Emission-Computed

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