[Abstract Title]. - Society for Neuroscience

sensory and motor cortex during speech production in stuttering, possibly due to abnormal
efference copy. For the right hemisphere, correlations between the midbrain and IFG during
speech increased from baseline in PWS and decreased in controls. We believe that the increased
activity in right IFG, seen here in controls under delayed feedback and reported previously in
PWS, relates to the inhibition of the motor act of speech. Previous studies have revealed a
network of regions comprising the right IFG, SMA and the subthalamic nucleus involved in
response inhibition of motor acts including speech. Thus the basal ganglia, and possibly
dopamine, may play an overactive role in this “braking” mechanism during speech disfluencies.
In conclusion, functional connectivity analyses has revealed abnormal coupling of activity in two
separate networks consistent with two different explanations of stuttering.
Disclosures: K.E. Watkins , None; T.E.J. Behrens, None; S. Davis, None; P. Howell, None.
Poster
249. Dyslexia, SLI, and Other Disorders of Cognition and Behavior
Time: Sunday, November 16, 2008, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Program#/Poster#: 249.27/V12
Topic: F.01.d. Language
Support: Charles A. Dana Foundation
NIDCD Grant 04418
Title: White matter pathways underlying reading skills in profoundly deaf adults
Authors: E. HIRSHORN 1 , M. MANI 2 , A. GUIDON 2 , *D. BAVELIER 1 ;
1 Brain & Cog Sci., Univ. Rochester, Rochester, NY; 2 Rochester Ctr. for Brain Imaging, Univ. of
Rochester, Rochester, NY
Abstract: Deaf readers on average only reach a 4th grade reading level. While greater residual
hearing predicts better reading skills in this population, some profoundly deaf readers, with little
to no access to the sounds of English, still reach high levels of reading proficiency. The current
study aims to characterize structural white matter tracts involved in reading processes in such
individuals. Deaf individuals with a profound, congenital dB loss, native proficiency in
American Sign Language and a college level of education (N=20) were compared to age, gender
and education matched hearing individuals (N=20) in order to investigate the underlying neural
substrates of reading in the deaf and possible alternate neural routes to achieving literacy.
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), which provides useful information about white matter
anisotropy, was used in addition to obtaining standardized reading scores using the PIAT. Group