ArticleBrain structure & function2017
White matter properties differ in 6-year old Readers and Pre-readers.
Article in Brain structure & function, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 47 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bilateral Ventral Pathways Support Phonological Awareness at Reading Onset in Spanish-Speaking Children.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- The Relation of the Home Literacy Environment to White Matter Pathways Associated with Language in Children 5-8 Years Old.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- White Matter Diffusivity Predicts Change in Sight Word Reading Following Continuous Theta Burst Stimulation to the Left Temporal Parietal Junction.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Reading and White Matter Development: A Systematic Review of Neuroplastic Changes in Literacy.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- The Effects of Prenatal Alcohol Exposure on Structural Brain Connectivity and Early Language Skills in a South African Birth Cohort.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Early language processing efficiency and pre-literacy outcomes in children born full term and preterm.Journal of experimental child psychology · 2024Article
- Language Experience during Infancy Predicts White Matter Myelination at Age 2 Years.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- A narrative review of the anatomy and function of the white matter tracts in language production and comprehension.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Review
- Cortical asymmetries at different spatial hierarchies relate to phonological processing ability.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- Left and Right Arcuate Fasciculi Are Uniquely Related to Word Reading Skills in Chinese-English Bilingual Children.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2022Article
- Neurobiological underpinnings of rapid white matter plasticity during intensive reading instruction.NeuroImage · 2021Article
- Multifactorial pathways facilitate resilience among kindergarteners at risk for dyslexia: A longitudinal behavioral and neuroimaging study.Developmental science · 2021Article
- Maturation of cortical microstructure and cognitive development in childhood and adolescence: A T1w/T2w ratio MRI study.Human brain mapping · 2020Article
- Associations between home literacy environment, brain white matter integrity and cognitive abilities in preschool-age children.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2020Article
- Language development and brain reorganization in a child born without the left hemisphere.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2020Article
- Neonatal white matter tract microstructure and 2-year language outcomes after preterm birth.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2020Article
- Microstructural properties of white matter pathways in relation to subsequent reading abilities in children: a longitudinal analysis.Brain structure & function · 2019Article
- The relationship between socioeconomic status and white matter microstructure in pre-reading children: A longitudinal investigation.Human brain mapping · 2019Article
- White matter alterations and tract lateralization in children with dyslexia and isolated spelling deficits.Human brain mapping · 2019Article
- More than myelin: Probing white matter differences in prematurity with quantitative T1 and diffusion MRI.NeuroImage. Clinical · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Reading, an essential life skill in modern society, is typically learned during childhood. Adults who can read show white matter differences compared to adults who never learned to read. Studies have not established whether children who can read show similar white matter differences compared to children who cannot read. We compared 6-year old children who could decode written English words and pseudowords (n = 31; Readers) and 6-year old children who could not decode pseudowords and had a standard score <100 on a task for reading single words (n = 11; Pre-readers). We employed diffusion MRI and tractography to extract fractional anisotropy (FA) along the trajectory of six bilateral intra-hemispheric tracts and two posterior subdivisions of the corpus callosum. Readers demonstrated significantly increased FA within the left anterior segment of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (aSLF-L) and the right uncinate fasciculus (UF-R) compared to Pre-readers. FA in the aSLF-L was significantly correlated with phonological awareness; FA in the UF-R was significantly correlated with language. Correlations in the UF-R but not the aSLF-L remained significant after controlling for reading ability, revealing that UF-R group differences were related to both children's language and reading abilities. Taken together, these findings demonstrate new evidence showing that individual differences in white matter structure relate to whether children have begun to read.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.