What's in a word? An fMRI investigation of silent single word reading in children in grades 2 and 3

Abstract

Amidst a large body of research investigating reading development, a lack of information remains concerning the brain regions engaged during word reading in developing readers. Thus, the present study aims to validate a passive word reading paradigm and identify the brain areas that are significantly active during single word reading, in second and third grade children. Five participants completed a word-screening task, behavioural assessments of reading, and a silent single word reading task during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We demonstrated that during silent single word reading, children in grades 2 and 3 engaged the opercular and triangular parts of the left inferior frontal gyrus, the right superior temporal gyrus, and the left cerebellum. This result is valuable for increasing our understanding of skilled reading development, and future research may benefit from employing a similar experimental paradigm in a larger sample size, to increase clarity in the conclusions and literature.