PREDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

Claremont Graduate University, Claremont CA

Investigators

Abstract

The research proposed under this fellowship will examine the magnocellular pathway and it's role in reading. In the last few years, there have been a number of reports indicating a relationship between dyslexia and a visual processing deficit specific to the magnocellular pathway (M path). It is not clear how an M path dysfunction would cause reading difficulties, or even if the dysfunction contributes significantly to dyslexia.. Preliminary studies from this lab however, indicate there is an M path involvement in specific aspects of reading. Specifically, the M path seems to be involved with global orthographic processing. The research proposed under this NIH fellowship will be conducted to assess the involvement M path deficit has on reading performance and to show the specific reading mechanisms effected by M path dysfunction in adults and children diagnosed with dyslexia. The research project will be conducted in two parts. Part I: The first step to assess the M path involvement in reading will be to evaluate the vascular of currently available methodologies for inhibiting M path processing. The, second step will be to record and compare, in non-dyslexic individuals, neural activity associated with orthographic and phonologic processing tasks under M path inhibition and normal conditions. Part II: To test the hypothesis that an M path deficit is significantly contributing to reading problems in dyslexics, neural activity recorded under M path inhibition will be compared to neural activity recorded from dyslexic individuals performing the same tasks.