Executive functions (EF) are cognitive processes supporting language and reading. Children with dyslexia show reading difficulties primarily due to phonological processing, with additional reported deficits in EF. This study aimed to determine the differences in EF involvement during written (reading) versus oral language (narrative) comprehension in children with dyslexia versus typical readers neurobiologically and behaviorally.
Methods:
Reading, language, and EF behavioral measures and functional MRI data were collected from 55 typical readers (TR) and 65 English-speaking children with dyslexia ages 8–12 years during reading and narrative comprehension tasks. Differences within and between functional connectivity of EF and attention networks were calculated and then compared between groups and tasks using Fisher Z-transformation.
Results:
Children with dyslexia showed higher functional connectivity values in EF and attention networks in both reading and narrative comprehension tasks, whereas TR showed higher functional connectivity in narrative versus reading comprehension. Within groups, analysis showed higher functional connectivity within dorsal attention functional brain network (DAN) and between DAN-fronto-parietal (FP), cingulo-opercular (CO)-FP, and ventral attention functional brain network (VAN)-DAN, in the reading versus narrative comprehension task in the dyslexia group. TR showed higher functional connectivity within VAN, and between VAN-FP in the narrative compared to the reading comprehension tasks.
Discussion:
Children with dyslexia seem to greatly utilize EF and attention-related networks in narrative and reading comprehension tasks and demonstrate a greater network integration for the written versus oral comprehension task. TR, however, utilize these networks only during oral comprehension, which may point to a greater reliance on memory and processing effort in the absence of written information.
Impact Statement
Greater utilization of executive functions and attention-related networks in narrative and reading comprehension tasks and greater network integration for the written versus oral comprehension task were found in children with dyslexia. These findings point to the importance of these nonlinguistic networks in atypical reading development. These findings can serve as a potential target for future interventions for children with dyslexia.
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