A software ecosystem for brain tractometry processing, analysis, and insight.

Tractometry uses diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) to assess physical properties of brain connections. Here, we present an integrative ecosystem of software that performs all steps of tractometry: post-processing of dMRI data, delineation of major white matter pathways, and modeling of the tissue properties within them. This ecosystem also provides a set of interoperable and extensible tools for visualization and interpretation of the results that extract insights from these measurements.

Development of the arcuate fasciculus is linked to learning gains in reading.

Past studies leveraging cross-sectional data have raised questions surrounding the relationship between diffusion properties of the white matter and academic skills. Some studies have suggested that white matter properties serve as static predictors of academic skills, whereas other studies have observed no such relationship. However, longitudinal studies have suggested that within-individual changes in the white matter are linked to learning gains over time.

Fast and reliable quantitative measures of white matter development with magnetic resonance fingerprinting.

Developmental cognitive neuroscience aims to shed light on evolving relationshipsbetween brain structure and cognitive development. To this end, quantitativemethods that reliably measure individual differences in brain tissue propertiesare fundamental. Standard qualitative MRI sequences are influenced by scanparameters and hardware-related biases, and also lack physical units, making theanalysis of individual differences problematic.

Visual Word Form Area demonstrates individual and task-agnostic consistency but inter-individual variability.

Ventral Occipital Temporal Cortex (VOTC) is home to a mosaic of categorically-selective functional regions that respond to visual stimuli. Within left VOTC lies the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) - a text-selective region that develops as an individual learns to read. While there is consistency in the general location of text-selective responses - within the posterior portion of the occipitotemporal sulcus (OTS) - there is also substantial variability across individuals in the size and precise anatomical location.

Design and validation of a rapid visual processing measure for screening reading difficulties in early childhood.

As the development of visual processing abilities is known to precede the development of reading abilities, identifying visual measures that reliably correlate with reading measures has tremendous theoretical and practical importance. A major challenge in addressing this question empirically is developing reliable behavioral measures for developmental studies, because most tasks are not equally reliable across different age groups and require iterative design changes to ensure that the measure reliably indexes the intended construct across the developmental span. Here, we present a series of studies that show how to iteratively modify a behavioral task by data-informed task changes and the use of item response theory to reduce task redundancies and develop a fun, fast, reliable, and easy-to-deploy web-based measure for K/1/2-graders in school settings.

Two Axes of White Matter Development.

Despite decades of neuroimaging research, how white matter develops along the length of major tracts in humans remains unknown. Here, we identify fundamental patterns of white matter maturation by examining developmental variation along major, long-range cortico-cortical tracts in youth ages 5-23 years using diffusion MRI from three large-scale, cross-sectional datasets (total = 2,716). Across datasets, we delineate two replicable axes of human white matter development.

Anatomically distinct regions in the inferior frontal cortex are modulated by task and reading skill.

Inferior frontal cortex (IFC) is a critical region for reading and language. This part of the cortex is highly heterogeneous in its structural and functional organization and shows high variability across individuals. Despite decades of research, the relationship between specific IFC regions and reading skill remains unclear.

Assessing white matter plasticity in a randomized controlled trial of early literacy training in preschoolers.

Reading is a cognitive skill that requires our brain to go through a myriad of changes during learning. While many studies have described how reading acquisition shapes children's brain function, less is known about the impact of reading on brain structure. Here we examined short-term causal effects of reading training on preschoolers' behavior and white matter structure.

Small or absent Visual Word Form Area is a trait of dyslexia.

Understanding the balance between plastic and persistent traits in the dyslexic brain is critical for developing effective interventions. This longitudinal intervention study examines the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) in dyslexic and typical readers, exploring how this key component of the brain's reading circuitry changes with learning. We found that dyslexic readers show significant differences in VWFA presence, size, and tuning properties compared to typical readers.

ROAR-CAT: Rapid Online Assessment of Reading ability with Computerized Adaptive Testing.

The Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR) is a web-based lexical decision task that measures single-word reading abilities in children and adults without a proctor. Here we study whether item response theory (IRT) and computerized adaptive testing (CAT) can be used to create a more efficient online measure of word recognition. To construct an item bank, we first analyzed data taken from four groups of students (N = 1960) who differed in age, socioeconomic status, and language-based learning disabilities.

Primate brain: A unique connection between dorsal and ventral visual cortex.

In humans and other primates, vision is subserved by at least two parallel processing streams that are interconnected through a pathway known as the vertical occipital fasciculus. New research reveals that this white matter pathway may be a unique feature of the primate brain.

Audiovisual Speech Perception Benefits are Stable from Preschool through Adolescence.

The ability to leverage visual cues in speech perception - especially in noisy backgrounds - is well established from infancy to adulthood. Yet, the developmental trajectory of audiovisual benefits stays a topic of debate. The inconsistency in findings can be attributed to relatively small sample sizes or tasks that are not appropriate for given age groups.

Fast and reliable quantitative measures of white matter development with magnetic resonance fingerprinting.

Developmental cognitive neuroscience aims to shed light on evolving relationships between brain structure and cognitive development. To this end, quantitative methods that reliably measure individual differences in brain tissue properties are fundamental. Standard qualitative MRI sequences are influenced by scan parameters and hardware-related biases, and also lack physical units, making the analysis of individual differences problematic.

Tractometry of the Human Connectome Project: resources and insights.

Introduction: The Human Connectome Project (HCP) has become a keystone dataset in human neuroscience, with a plethora of important applications in advancing brain imaging methods and an understanding of the human brain. We focused on tractometry of HCP diffusion-weighted MRI (dMRI) data.

Methods: We used an open-source software library (pyAFQ; https://yeatmanlab.

Rapid online assessment of reading and phonological awareness (ROAR-PA).

Phonological awareness (PA) is at the foundation of reading development: PA is introduced before formal reading instruction, predicts reading development, is a target for early intervention, and is a core mechanism in dyslexia. Conventional approaches to assessing PA are time-consuming and resource intensive: assessments are individually administered and scoring verbal responses is challenging and subjective. Therefore, we introduce a rapid, automated, online measure of PA-The Rapid Online Assessment of Reading-Phonological Awareness-that can be implemented at scale without a test administrator.

Reading instruction causes changes in category-selective visual cortex.

Education sculpts specialized neural circuits for skills like reading that are critical to success in modern society but were not anticipated by the selective pressures of evolution. Does the emergence of brain regions that selectively process novel visual stimuli like words occur at the expense of cortical representations of other stimuli like faces and objects? "Neuronal Recycling" predicts that learning to read should enhance the response to words in ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC) and decrease the response to other visual categories such as faces and objects. To test this hypothesis, and more broadly to understand the changes that are induced by the early stages of literacy instruction, we conducted a randomized controlled trial with pre-school children (five years of age).

Differences in educational opportunity predict white matter development.

Coarse measures of socioeconomic status, such as parental income or parental education, have been linked to differences in white matter development. However, these measures do not provide insight into specific aspects of an individual's environment and how they relate to brain development. On the other hand, educational intervention studies have shown that changes in an individual's educational context can drive measurable changes in their white matter.

Convolutional neural network-based classification of glaucoma using optic radiation tissue properties.

Background: Sensory changes due to aging or disease can impact brain tissue. This study aims to investigate the link between glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness, and alterations in brain connections.

Methods: We analyzed diffusion MRI measurements of white matter tissue in a large group, consisting of 905 glaucoma patients (aged 49-80) and 5292 healthy individuals (aged 45-80) from the UK Biobank.

Understanding the interplay between executive functions and reading development: A challenge for researchers and practitioners alike.

In June of 2022, The Dyslexia Foundation (TDF) organized a convening of dyslexia researchers and practitioners around the topic of executive functions. There was consensus on the importance of executive functions for reading development. However, the difficulty of defining, measuring, and training executive functions emerged as a challenge for researchers and practitioners alike.

The transition from vision to language: Distinct patterns of functional connectivity for subregions of the visual word form area.

Reading entails transforming visual symbols to sound and meaning. This process depends on specialized circuitry in the visual cortex, the visual word form area (VWFA). Recent findings suggest that this text-selective cortex comprises at least two distinct subregions: the more posterior VWFA-1 is sensitive to visual features, while the more anterior VWFA-2 processes higher level language information.

White matter and literacy: A dynamic system in flux.

Cross-sectional studies have linked differences in white matter tissue properties to reading skills. However, past studies have reported a range of, sometimes conflicting, results. Some studies suggest that white matter properties act as individual-level traits predictive of reading skill, whereas others suggest that reading skill and white matter develop as a function of an individual's educational experience.

Development of the Alpha Rhythm Is Linked to Visual White Matter Pathways and Visual Detection Performance.

Alpha is the strongest electrophysiological rhythm in awake humans at rest. Despite its predominance in the EEG signal, large variations can be observed in alpha properties during development, with an increase in alpha frequency over childhood and adulthood. Here, we tested the hypothesis that these changes in alpha rhythm are related to the maturation of visual white matter pathways.

Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR): Evaluation of an Online Tool for Screening Reading Skills in a Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics Clinic.

Objective: Reading difficulties are highly prevalent and frequently co-occur with other neurodevelopmental/behavioral conditions. It is difficult to assess reading routinely in pediatric clinical practice because of time and resource constraints. Rapid Online Assessment of Reading (ROAR) is an objective, gamified assessment that children take in a web browser without adult supervision.

Children with dyslexia show no deficit in exogenous spatial attention but show differences in visual encoding.

In the search for mechanisms that contribute to dyslexia, the term "attention" has been invoked to explain performance in a variety of tasks, creating confusion since all tasks do, indeed, demand "attention." Many studies lack an experimental manipulation of attention that would be necessary to determine its influence on task performance. Nonetheless, an emerging view is that children with dyslexia have an impairment in the exogenous (automatic/reflexive) orienting of spatial attention.

Human white matter myelinates faster in utero than ex utero.

The formation of myelin, the fatty sheath that insulates nerve fibers, is critical for healthy brain function. A fundamental open question is what impact being born has on myelin growth. To address this, we evaluated a large ( = 300) cross-sectional sample of newborns from the Developing Human Connectome Project (dHCP).