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Wired to Read: Pre-Reading Structural Connectivity Fingerprints Shape Functional Reorganization in the vOT
Poster Session C, Thursday, October 1, 10:45 am - 12:45 pm, Wangari Maathai
Weronika Herdzina1; 1Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology PAS
Cultural inventions like literacy reshape the human brain through coordination between structural architecture and functional specialization. The example is the development of the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) in the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (lvOT). In the vOT, reading acquisition is thought to refine initially broad visual responses, gradually shaping them into more print-sensitive patterns of activity (Cantlon et al., 2011). Specifically, innate structural connectivity fingerprints - characterized by distinct links to spoken language networks and the prefrontal cortex - are established before reading onset, acting as a critical scaffold that actively drives and accurately predicts the future location of the VWFA (Saygin et al., 2016; Li et al., 2020). Because structural networks constrain multi-category selectivity (Osher et al., 2016), investigating white matter pathways is essential. Yet, it remains unclear how pre-reading structural connectivity maps onto early functional preferences, and how white matter tracts modulate subsequent multi-category reorganization in the vOT. Building on this framework, we will examine whether pre-reading structural connectivity predicts future lvOT multi-category specialization, including the organization of the VWFA. We hypothesize that pre-reading functional preferences of future word-selective voxels are driven by distinct baseline white matter connections profiles, while non-VWFA voxels like those involved in processing visual and other modality categories possess separate, stable trajectories. Finally, we examine whether children with dyslexia display altered structural wiring and divergent pathways. To investigate these mechanisms, we track a longitudinal cohort of 120 Polish children, with the research conducted at the Laboratory of Language Neurobiology at the Nencki Institute (Warsaw, Poland). At baseline, the sample consists of 60 pre-readers with a familial risk of dyslexia and 60 typically developing peers aged 5–6 years. Over three sequential waves (covering ages 5–6, 7–8, and 9–10), participants complete neuroimaging sessions alongside a behavioral battery assessing phonological processing, Rapid Automatized Naming, vocabulary, memory, and reading acquisition. The final testing in the third grade concludes with a dyslexia assessment. This project combines Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) with an fMRI block-design category localizer (words, faces, objects, speech, visual speech). DWI was acquired using a UK Biobank–based spin-echo EPI protocol with 2 × 2 × 2 mm³ resolution, TR= 3000 ms, and echo time= 74 ms. Diffusion encoding was performed along 104 directions across two diffusion weightings (b = 1000 and 2000 s/mm²). We expect that longitudinal changes in DTI structural connectivity fingerprints couple with functional voxel selectivity and cortical shifts across reading development. In typical readers, baseline structural wiring should predict early visual preferences and efficient orthographic specialization. Conversely, children at risk for dyslexia are expected to show altered white matter integrity, lower structural-functional coupling stability, and atypical development of the multi-category vOT region. These findings will clarify how structural scaffolding directs VWFA development, uncovering early connectivity-based markers of reading difficulties. This ongoing research is funded by the National Science Centre under grant no. 2024/54/E/HS6/00242 for the period 2025–2030. Preliminary results will be presented at the poster session.
Topic Areas: Reading, Disorders: Developmental