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Reading therapy strengthens top-down connectivity in patients with pure alexia

Woodhead, ZV; Penny, W; Barnes, GR; Crewes, H; Wise, RJ; Price, CJ; Leff, AP; (2013) Reading therapy strengthens top-down connectivity in patients with pure alexia. Brain: A Journal of Neurology , 136 (8) 2579 - 2591. 10.1093/brain/awt186. Green open access

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Abstract

This study tested the efficacy of audio-visual reading training in nine patients with pure alexia, an acquired reading disorder caused by damage to the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex. As well as testing the therapy's impact on reading speed, we investigated the functional reorganization underlying therapy-induced behavioural changes using magnetoencephalography. Reading ability was tested twice before training (t1 and t2) and twice after completion of the 6-week training period (t3 and t4). At t3 there was a significant improvement in word reading speed and reduction of the word length effect for trained words only. Magnetoencephalography at t3 demonstrated significant differences in reading network connectivity for trained and untrained words. The training effects were supported by increased bidirectional connectivity between the left occipital and ventral occipitotemporal perilesional cortex, and increased feedback connectivity from the left inferior frontal gyrus. Conversely, connection strengths between right hemisphere regions became weaker after training.

Type: Article
Title: Reading therapy strengthens top-down connectivity in patients with pure alexia
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1093/brain/awt186
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/brain/awt186
Language: English
Additional information: © 2013, The Author. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Guarantors of Brain. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Keywords: Alexia, Connectivity, Magnetoencephalography, Reading disorders, Stroke
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Brain Repair and Rehabilitation
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology > Imaging Neuroscience
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1403511
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