Magnocellular training improves visual word recognition
نویسندگان
چکیده
Current research has shown that basic visual networks, such as the magnocellular system, may play a crucial role in reading deficits related to dyslexia. The current study explored the relationship between magnocellular activity and reading abilities; we examined the hypothesis that a repeated usage of the magnocellular stream may improve reading by strengthening crucial neural pathways. Visual training was conducted for five consecutive days using a motion detection task (magnocellular training) and a control task of pattern detection (parvocellular training). Reading abilities of skilled readers were measured before and after the training using a lexical decision task. It was found that low-grade visual training overall can improve speed of lexical decision, but there is some indication that magnocellular training may selectively relate to accuracy. This potential added benefit of accuracy is crucial, and indicates that magnocellular training may have an advantage to parvocellular or general visual training when it comes to reading. This result lends support to the role of basic visual systems in reading, and has potential implications for neurorehabilitation of reading-related deficits.
منابع مشابه
Improving Dorsal Stream Function in Dyslexics by Training Figure/Ground Motion Discrimination Improves Attention, Reading Fluency, and Working Memory
There is an ongoing debate about whether the cause of dyslexia is based on linguistic, auditory, or visual timing deficits. To investigate this issue three interventions were compared in 58 dyslexics in second grade (7 years on average), two targeting the temporal dynamics (timing) of either the auditory or visual pathways with a third reading intervention (control group) targeting linguistic w...
متن کاملAsynchrony modeling for audio-visual speech recognition
We investigate the use of multi-stream HMMs in the automatic recognition of audio-visual speech. Multi-stream HMMs allow the modeling of asynchrony between the audio and visual state sequences at a variety of levels (phone, syllable, word, etc.) and are equivalent to product, or composite, HMMs. In this paper, we consider such models synchronized at the phone boundary level, allowing various de...
متن کاملAttentional shifting and the role of the dorsal pathway in visual word recognition.
A substantial amount of evidence has been collected to propose an exclusive role for the dorsal visual pathway in the control of guided visual search mechanisms, specifically in the preattentive direction of spatial selection [Vidyasagar, T. R. (1999). A neuronal model of attentional spotlight: Parietal guiding the temporal. Brain Research and Reviews, 30, 66-76; Vidyasagar, T. R. (2001). From ...
متن کاملMagnocellular visual function and children's single word reading
Recent research has shown that reading disabled children find it unusually difficult to detect flickering or moving visual stimuli, consistent with impaired processing in the magnocellular visual stream. Yet, it remains controversial to suggest that reduced visual sensitivity of this kind might affect children's reading. Here we suggest that when children read, impaired magnocellular function m...
متن کاملDorsal stream modulation of visual word recognition in skilled readers
We examined the hypothesis of a visual magnocellular involvement in intact reading, by testing a group of skilled readers in lateralized versions of coherent motion detection and lexical decision tasks. Motion detection thresholds were used to divide subjects into groups of poor and good motion detectors, their performance in lexical judgment of four letter string types was then compared. Altho...
متن کامل