Fifteen percent of Americans suffer from dyslexia, which, according to a new study, means 15 percent of Americans suffer from glitches between certain areas of their brain, Philly.com reported.
Scientists don't really understand the exact mechanisms behind dyslexia; they only know it's brain-related and can impair the ability to read. The latest research, published in the Dec. 6 issue of Science, suggests that missed or faulty connections between particular regions of the brain could be the disorder's primary cause.
For the previous forty years, researchers believed dyslexic brains were incorrectly categorizing basic sounds and language. Using brain imaging technology, lead researcher Bart Boets expected to confirm these suspicions, but the areas associated with phonetic representation were normal in the 23 dyslexic patients he studied. Instead, he discovered that the transfer of information relating to sound and language to separate, language-processing areas of the brain was compromised, according to Philly.com.
"A relevant metaphor might be the comparison with a computer network," said Boets, who works at the Leuven Autism Research Consortium in Belgium. "We show that the information -- the data -- on the server itself is intact, but the connection to access this information is too slow or degraded."
Boets still needs to expand his research to more participants and to children, Philly.com reported. The old theory of faulty phonetic representations might still have some merit if dyslexic adults simply took more time to develop this brain region than normal adults.
It's also unclear how neuroscientists and educators will use Boet's research. Current treatments focus on strengthening the same pathways highlighted in this study so Boets envisions more nuanced techniques designed to target more specific brain connections.
Ben Shifrin, vice president of the International Dyslexia Association in Baltimore, hopes to see more of the collobaration between researchers and educators to which Boets refers.
"We need even more of that," Shifrin suggested. "For years, it used to be that the neuroscientists were working in the lab and not talking to educators. That's changing."
