A semantic strength and neural correlates in developmental dyslexia

Sladjana Lukic; Fei Jiang; Maria Luisa Mandelli; Ting Qi; Sarah M Inkelis; Emily Rosenthal; Zachary Miller; Emma Wellman; Silvia A Bunge; Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini; Christa Watson Pereira

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1405425

A semantic strength and neural correlates in developmental dyslexia

Front Psychol. 2025 Feb 4:15:1405425. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1405425. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Sladjana Lukic^{1

2

3}, Fei Jiang⁴, Maria Luisa Mandelli^{1

2}, Ting Qi⁵, Sarah M Inkelis^{1

2}, Emily Rosenthal^{2

6}, Zachary Miller^{1

2}, Emma Wellman^{1

2}, Silvia A Bunge^{2

6

7}, Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini^{1

2}, Christa Watson Pereira^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Memory and Aging Center, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.
² UCSF-UCB Schwab Dyslexia and Cognitive Diversity Center, San Francisco, CA, United States.
³ School of Communication Science and Disorders, Florida State University College of Communication and Information, Tallahassee, FL, United States.
⁴ Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States.
⁵ Department of Brain Cognition and Intelligent Medicine, Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China.
⁶ Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.
⁷ Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.

Abstract

Introduction: Most studies of dyslexia focus on domains of impairment (e.g., reading and phonology, among others), but few examine possible strengths. In the present study, we investigated semantic fluency as a cognitive strength in English-speaking children with dyslexia aged 8-13.

Methods: Ninety-seven children with dyslexia completed tests of letter and semantic verbal fluency, standardized measures of reading and cognitive functions, and task-free resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). First, we adjusted performance on semantic fluency by letter fluency and created a residual score that was used to separate participants into high (residual >0) or average (residual <0) semantic performance groups. We then employed a psycholinguistic clustering and switching approach to the semantic fluency task and performed dynamic task-free rs-fMRI connectivity analysis to reveal group differences in brain dynamics.

Results: High and average semantic fluency groups were well-matched on demographics and letter fluency but differed on their psycholinguistic patterns on the semantic fluency task. The high semantic fluency group, compared to the average semantic fluency group, produced a higher number of words within each cluster, a higher max cluster size, and a higher number of switches. Differential dynamic rs-fMRI connectivity (shorter average dwell time and greater brain state switches) was observed between the high and average groups in a large-scale bilateral frontal-temporal-occipital network.

Discussion: These data demonstrate that a subgroup of children with dyslexia perform above average on semantic fluency tasks and their performance is strongly linked to distinct psycholinguistic patterns and differences in a task-free resting-state brain network, which includes regions previously implicated in semantic processing. This work highlights that inter-individual differences should be taken into account in dyslexia and reveals a cognitive area of strength for some children with dyslexia that could be leveraged for reading interventions.

Keywords: brain dynamics; clustering and switching approach; cognitive strength; developmental dyslexia; semantic fluency.

Publication types

Review