Brain Scan Able to Detect Child Dyslexia

WITH scan on his brain, scientists can find out what actually happens when a child with dyslexia is trying to digest the text read.

A breakthrough in effective learning for children with dyslexia. Scientists have managed to express accurately predict up to 90% of children who have reading disorders or dyslexia known through scanning technology or scan of the brain.

This discovery will also be a benchmark to improve reading skills in children for several years.

The researchers managed to reveal the activity in certain brain areas during reading that could lead to new treatments for people with dyslexia.

"However, today, we can not decide what type of treatment that can be beneficial for the child," said research team member Fumiko Hoeft, MD, PhD, imaging expert at Stanford University, United States, was quoted as webmd.com.

"But, with continued research and if the researcher combines them with the study intervention, then we should be able to identify brain patterns that can predict one type of intervention or another," he continued.

Hoeft said, the study provides a high expectation that we can identify the kids like what might be better from time to time. The word dyslexia comes from Greek, from dys word which means 'trouble', and the word lexis meaning 'language'.

So, literally, dyslexia learning disorders that interfere with a person's ability to read, which affects about 5% to 17% of children in the United States.

However, 20% of dyslexic children can develop adequate reading skills as they mature. Until now, what happens in the brain that can improve the likelihood of this disorder is not known for certain.

Brain imaging studies in the past have shown greater activation of specific brain regions in children and adults with dyslexia when they are given the teaching of reading.

In particular, an area known as the interior frontal gyrus showed signs of hyperactivity in people who suffer from dyslexia.

Hoeft and his colleagues began to investigate to determine whether neuroimaging can predict which children with dyslexia will get improvement in their reading using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) fMRI process to demonstrate the use of oxygen by the area within the brain.

Meanwhile, diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (DTI) shows the relationship between regions in the brain. Researchers enrolled 25 children with dyslexia and 20 other people without dyslexia who are aged between 11 and 14 years.

They are routinely evaluated the ability to read by using standard tests. The researchers used two types of brain imaging, namely fMRIs and DTIs, which works when a child is reading.

Then, 2.5 years after that, the researchers re-evaluate the performance of the participants when reading. They found that no behavior can be measured, including reading and language tests, which can predict the progress of one's ability in reading.

However, children with dyslexia who can demonstrate the inferior frontal gyrus activation greater in the right hemisphere showed the best development for 2.5 years since the beginning of the study.

The scientists also investigated the related problem of white matter (central information processing in the brain) which is connected to the right brain areas and children who are better organized this has also shown an increase in its development life.

By using this scanning technique, the researchers say they can predict with significant accuracy how the ability of children with dyslexia in the future.

"The reason is interesting that until now there has been no other action that is expected to offset one's learning process," said Hoeft.

By understanding what happens to this child's brain, scientists can now better prepared to develop interventions that focus on brain areas involved in this matter and immediately help teens learn to read faster.

Important brain scans to uncover the best ways to meet the needs of individuals who struggle to read. This is expressed by researchers companion Bruce McCandliss PhD from Vanderbilt University, USA.

"These findings can be used to investigate the possibility that the patterns of brain activity and structural differences may be a clue how to match treatment and care for special needs children," he said.

Alan E Guttmacher, MD, Director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, said this study provides new insights about how certain people with dyslexia through the process of learning to compensate for reading difficulties.