Haskins Publications

Number	1543
Year	2009
Drawer	27
Entry Date	06/17/2009
Authors	Frost, S.J., Landi, N., Mencl, W.E., Sandak, R., Fulbright, R.K., Tejada, E.T., Jacobsen, L., Grigorenko, E.L., Constable, R.T., Pugh, K.R.
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Publication	Annals of Dyslexia (2009), v. 59, pp. 78-97.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL1543.pdf
Abstract	Using fMRI, we explored the relationship between phonological awareness (PA), a measure of metaphonological knowledge of the segmental structure of speech, and brain activation patterns during processing of print and speech in young readers from 6 to 10 years of age. Behavioral measures of PA were positively correclated with activation levels for print relative to speech tokens in superior temporal and occipito-temporal regions. Differences between print-elicited activation levels in superior temporal and inferior frontal sites were also correlated with PA measures with the direction of the correlation depending on stimulus type: positive for pronounceable pseudowords and negative for consonant strings. These results support and extend the many indications in the behavioral and neurocognitive literature that PA is a major component of skill in beginning readers and point to a developmental trajectory by which written language engages areas originally shaped by speech for learners on the path toward successful literacy acquisition.
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