Examination of common and unique brain regions for atypical reading and math: a meta-analysis
Year: 2023
Type: review
Study designs: Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis
Abstract: The purpose of this study is to identify consistencies across functional neuroimaging studies regarding common and unique brain regions/networks for individuals with reading difficulties (RD) and math difficulties (MD) compared to typically developing (TD) individuals. A systematic search of the literature, utilizing multiple databases, yielded 116 functional magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography studies that met the criteria. Coordinates that directly compared TD with either RD or MD were entered into GingerALE (Brainmap.org). An activation likelihood estimate (ALE) meta-analysis was conducted to examine common and unique brain regions for RD and MD. Overall, more studies examined RD (n = 96) than MD (n = 20). Across studies, overactivation for reading and math occurred in the right insula and inferior frontal gyrus for atypically developing (AD) > TD comparisons, albeit in slightly different areas of these regions; however, inherent threshold variability across imaging studies could diminish overlying regions. For TD > AD comparisons, there were no similar or overlapping brain regions. Results indicate there were domain-specific differences for RD and MD; however, there were some similarities in the ancillary recruitment of executive functioning skills. Theoretical and practical implications for researchers and educators are discussed.
Source: Cerebral Cortex
Language: English
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: National Science Foundation, Vanderbilt University, Australian Government, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
Awards: G1182793083, Collaborative Research: AGEP Transformation Alliance: Bridging the PhD to Postdoc to Faculty Transitions for Women of Color in STEM, G2814242844, G4425699080, Overall: Eunice Kennedy Shriver Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at Vanderbilt, Eunice Kennedy Shriver Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center at Vanderbilt University, G5576971692, G5679716143, G7307553525, Cognitive and Neural Processes in Reading Comprehension, The Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (VICTR), G9000033427, G9000197111, Early Academic Achievement and Intervention Response: Role of Executive Function, Neural Correlates of Discourse Processing in Adolescents, Differential Diagnosis in Learning Disabilities
OpenAlex ID: W4319658909