Visual Processing in Children with Dyslexia and Their Siblings
Ann Skoczenski

Funded by The John Merck Scholars Fund

We are currently conducting a series of experiments that will contribute to our understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying dyslexia. We are using an electrophysiological technique to measure visual processing abilities in children with and without dyslexia. These studies will test the hypothesis that some subtypes of dyslexia are founded in visual perception deficits, and will provide data that will allow us a window into the neural processing of children with dyslexia. In the first part of the project, we are expanding on preliminary descriptive studies that suggest that some children with dyslexia have deficits in basic detail vision. The second experiment will use a masking paradigm to elucidate the nature of the detail vision deficit: this experiment will be similar to previous studies with infants and adults, and will determine what type of information is critical in performing a detail vision task. Finally, we will examine visual processing in younger (pre-reading) siblings of dyslexic children, to determine if neural markers of dyslexia may be present before children reach the age when dyslexia can be diagnosed.