The Neurobiological Basis of Skilled and Impaired Reading: Recent Findings and New Directions

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Abstract
In recent years, significant progress has been made in the study of reading and read- ing disability with the use of functional neuroimaging techniques. There is substan- tial converging evidence that skilled word recognition requires the development of a highly integrated cortical system that includes left hemisphere dorsal, ventral, and anterior subsystems. This article highlights key findings regarding the functional role of these regions during skilled reading, the developmental trajectory toward this ma- ture reading circuitry in normally developing children, deviations from this trajectory in populations with reading disabilities, and the ways in which successful reading remediation alters the brain organization for reading. We present one possible inter- pretation of these findings and report some recent findings from our lab that continue to refine our understanding of the functional properties of each component region and the ways in which these areas interact. The article concludes with a discussion of important areas of inquiry to be addressed in future work. For neuroimaging data to add to researchers' understanding of reading develop- ment, links must be established between cognitive processes and the neural sys- tems that support them. Therefore, neuroimaging research must be informed by cognitive theory and research from the outset. Behavioral studies have character- ized some of the critical cognitive processes necessary to acquire fluent reading and the ways in which these processes are deficient in individuals with reading dis- abilities. To learn to read, a child must develop an appreciation of the segmental nature of speech and come to realize that spoken words are composed of the small-