TY - JOUR
T1 - Start shallow and grow deep
T2 - The development of a Hebrew reading brain
AU - Nathaniel, Upasana
AU - Weiss, Yael
AU - Barouch, Bechor
AU - Katzir, Tami
AU - Bitan, Tali
N1 - Funding Information: The study was funded by the Israel Foundation Trustees (IFT) , grant 34/2011 to Tali Bitan, and by the Israel Science Foundation (ISF) - Jerusalem, Israel grant 1142/11 to Tali Bitan and Tami Katzir. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/11/5
Y1 - 2022/11/5
N2 - Brain plasticity implies that readers of different orthographies can have different reading networks. Theoretical models suggest that reading acquisition in transparent orthographies relies on mapping smaller orthographic units to phonology, than reading opaque orthographies; but what are the neural mechanisms underlying this difference? Hebrew has a transparent (pointed) script used for beginners, and a non-transparent script used for skilled readers. The current study examined the developmental changes in brain regions associated with phonological and orthographic processes during reading pointed and un-pointed words. Our results highlight some changes that are universal in reading development, such as a developmental increase in frontal involvement (in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) pars opercularis), and increase in left asymmetry (in IFG pars opercularis and superior temporal gyrus, STG) of the reading network. Our results also showed a developmental increase in activation in STG, which stands in contrast to previous studies in other orthographies. We further found an interaction of word length and diacritics in bilateral STG and the visual word form area (VWFA) across both groups. These findings suggest that children slightly adjust their reading depending on orthographic transparency, relying on smaller units when reading a transparent script and on larger units when reading an opaque script. Our results also showed that phonological abilities across groups correlated with activation in the VWFA, regardless of transparency, supporting the continued role of phonology at all levels of orthographic transparency. Our findings are consistent with multiple route reading models, in which both phonological and orthographic processing of multiple size units continue to play a role in children's reading of transparent and opaque scripts during reading development. The results further demonstrate the importance of taking into account differences between orthographies when constructing neural models of reading acquisition.
AB - Brain plasticity implies that readers of different orthographies can have different reading networks. Theoretical models suggest that reading acquisition in transparent orthographies relies on mapping smaller orthographic units to phonology, than reading opaque orthographies; but what are the neural mechanisms underlying this difference? Hebrew has a transparent (pointed) script used for beginners, and a non-transparent script used for skilled readers. The current study examined the developmental changes in brain regions associated with phonological and orthographic processes during reading pointed and un-pointed words. Our results highlight some changes that are universal in reading development, such as a developmental increase in frontal involvement (in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) pars opercularis), and increase in left asymmetry (in IFG pars opercularis and superior temporal gyrus, STG) of the reading network. Our results also showed a developmental increase in activation in STG, which stands in contrast to previous studies in other orthographies. We further found an interaction of word length and diacritics in bilateral STG and the visual word form area (VWFA) across both groups. These findings suggest that children slightly adjust their reading depending on orthographic transparency, relying on smaller units when reading a transparent script and on larger units when reading an opaque script. Our results also showed that phonological abilities across groups correlated with activation in the VWFA, regardless of transparency, supporting the continued role of phonology at all levels of orthographic transparency. Our findings are consistent with multiple route reading models, in which both phonological and orthographic processing of multiple size units continue to play a role in children's reading of transparent and opaque scripts during reading development. The results further demonstrate the importance of taking into account differences between orthographies when constructing neural models of reading acquisition.
KW - Hebrew
KW - Orthographic representations
KW - Orthographic transparency
KW - Phonological processing
KW - Reading acquisition
KW - fMRI
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139356889&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108376
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108376
M3 - Article
C2 - 36181772
SN - 0028-3932
VL - 176
SP - 108376
JO - Neuropsychologia
JF - Neuropsychologia
M1 - 108376
ER -