Structural white matter characteristics for working memory and switching/inhibition in children with reading difficulties: The role of the left superior longitudinal fasciculus

Rola Farah; Noam Glukhovsky; Keri Rosch; Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus

doi:10.1162/netn_a_00257

Structural white matter characteristics for working memory and switching/inhibition in children with reading difficulties: The role of the left superior longitudinal fasciculus

Netw Neurosci. 2022 Jul 1;6(3):897-915. doi: 10.1162/netn_a_00257. eCollection 2022 Jul.

Authors

Rola Farah¹, Noam Glukhovsky¹, Keri Rosch^{2

3}, Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Educational Neuroimaging Group, Faculty of Education in Science and Technology, Faculty of Biomedical Engineering, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
² Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
³ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Abstract

Reading difficulties (RDs) are characterized by slow and inaccurate reading as well as additional challenges in cognitive control (i.e., executive functions, especially in working memory, inhibition, and visual attention). Despite evidence demonstrating differences in these readers' language and visual processing abilities, white matter differences associated with executive functions (EFs) difficulties in children with RDs are scarce. Structural correlates for reading and EFs in 8- to 12-year-old children with RDs versus typical readers (TRs) were examined using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data. Results suggest that children with RDs showed significantly lower reading and EF abilities versus TRs. Lower fractional anisotropy (FA) in left temporo-parietal tracts was found in children with RDs, who also showed positive correlations between reading and working memory and switching/inhibition scores and FA in the left superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF). FA in the left SLF predicted working memory performance mediated by reading ability in children with RDs but not TRs. Our findings support alterations in white matter tracts related to working memory, switching/inhibition, and overall EF challenges in children with RDs and the linkage between working memory difficulties and FA alterations in the left SLF in children with RDs via reading.

Keywords: Children; Executive functions; Fractional anisotropy; Reading difficulties; White Matter.