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508 A Study of Cortical Thickness in Bilingual Children with Reading Disability (Dyslexia)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2023

Alison Schug
Affiliation:
Georgetown-Howard Universities
Guinevere F. Eden
Affiliation:
Center for the Study of Learning, Department of Pediatrics, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA
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Abstract

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OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Dyslexia is a common Reading Disability (RD) affecting 7-12% of the population and is associated with less cortical thickness (CT) in bilateral brain regions. However, the interaction between RD and a bilingual experience on CT is unknown, even though bilingualism is also associated with altered CT. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We studied 48 Bilinguals assigned to the Typical Reader group based on Oral Reading Recognition Test (ORRT) scores above 90 (avg=107 ± 14), 47 Bilinguals assigned to the RD group based on ORRT scores below 85 (avg=77 ± 5), 45 English Monolingual Typical Readers with ORRT scores above 90 (avg=102 ± 13) and 47 Monolinguals with RD based on ORRT scores below 85 (avg=78 ± 5). Participants (all from the Adolescent Brain & Cognitive Development Study) were 11.9 ± 0.7 years of age and the 4 groups were matched for sex, self-ratings of English, nonverbal reasoning, and combined household income. Structural magnetic resonance images were analyzed using CAT12 and all four groups were entered into a factorial analysis. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Surprisingly, the main effect of Reading Ability did not reveal any regions where RD manifested less CT than Controls (raising the possibility that the findings from the only two prior reports were due to small samples). The main effect of Language Background revealed less CT in bilinguals in bilateral perisylvian regions (inferior frontal gyri, superior temporal gyri, and left Heschl's gyrus) consistent with prior reports. There was no interaction of Reading Ability by Language Background. Taken together, we found no differences in CT in those with RD relative to Typical readers and no evidence that the dual language experience affected this result in any way. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: The lack of interaction between Reading Ability and Language Background indicates that a dual-language experience does not affect CT differently in those with RD and reduces concerns that RD in those who are bilingual needs to be given separate consideration in studies of CT neuroanatomy.

Type
Other
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. The Association for Clinical and Translational Science