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Abstract #3534

Single Word Reading in Reading Disability Depends on Word Frequency

Aanandhi Venkatadri1, Sheryl L. Rimrodt2,3, Amy Clements4, Kenneth R. Pugh5, Laurie E. Cutting6

1F.M.Kirby Center, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Division of Developmental Medicine, Children's Hospital of Vanderbilt, Nashville, TN, United States; 3Department of Cognitive Neurology, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States; 4Brain Sciences Institute , Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; 5Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, United States; 6Education and Brain Research Laboratory, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN, United States


Reading Disabled (RD) and Typically Developing Readers (TDR) were tested on a word discrimination task using high and low frequency words and pseudowords. ANOVAs were used to analyze differences in activation patterns between words versus pseudowords and between high versus low frequency words. For low frequency words, RDs showed greater activation than TDRs in right angular gyrus. For pseudowords, RDs also showed greater activation than TDRs in left superior temporal gyrus and several right hemisphere regions. Our findings suggest modulation of neurobiological response depending on the type of words presented; however, our findings also suggest that this modulation was present regardless of the word imageability level.