April 3, 2012

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Published! Cortical Thickness, Reading Skill, and Reading Experience

By Jason G. Goldman

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American

I received my masters degree in 2009. After a loooong review process, the research that I conducted for my masters thesis - my first first-author publication - is finally published and online!

Before beginning the research I'm currently doing, I started grad school conducting MRI research of reading and dyslexia. In this study, I established a connection between two disparate lines of reading research, by showing a relationship between reading experience and cortical thickness in parts of the brain we know to be involved in reading.

The abstract:

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This study investigated relationships among cortical thickness in the left-hemisphere reading network, and reading skill and experience in adult nonimpaired readers. Given the relationship between print exposure and reading, it is possible that print exposure is related to cortical structure. The pattern of correlations indicated that individuals with higher print exposure had better reading skills and thicker cortices. Furthermore, print exposure accounted for unique variance in cortical thickness in part of the left-hemisphere reading network after accounting for reading skill. This suggests that some of the variation in cortical thickness in adults might be attributable to reading experience, independently of reading skill.

Expect a more elaborate post on this next week.

Goldman, J.G., & Manis, F. (2012). Relationships Among Cortical Thickness, Reading Skill, and Print Exposure in Adults Scientific Studies of Reading, 1-14 DOI: 10.1080/10888438.2011.620673

Jason G. Goldman is a science journalist based in Los Angeles. He has written about animal behavior, wildlife biology, conservation, and ecology for Scientific American, Los Angeles magazine, the Washington Post, the Guardian, the BBC, Conservation magazine, and elsewhere. He contributes to Scientific American's "60-Second Science" podcast, and is co-editor of Science Blogging: The Essential Guide (Yale University Press). He enjoys sharing his wildlife knowledge on television and on the radio, and often speaks to the public about wildlife and science communication.

More by Jason G. Goldman

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