wobble, warbles and fish: the brain basis of dyslexia
DESCRIPTION
John Stein, Professor of Neuro-Physiology in the University of Oxford; Chairman Dyslexia Research Trust.TRANSCRIPT
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Wobbles, warbles and fish - the brain basis of
dyslexia
Prof John Stein Prof John Stein Oxford Oxford
UniversityUniversity
Supported by The Dyslexia Research Trust (www.dyslexic.org.uk), Dyers & Colourists, Esmee Fairbairn, Garfield Weston and Wellcome
Trusts, BBC Children in Need
DDD
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‘Reading is a painful task. It extinguishes the light from the eyes. It bends the back. It crushes the viscera and the ribs.It brings forth pain to the kidneys and weariness to the whole body.’13th C. Florentine monk or 20th C dyslexic!
‘Writing is not merely a copy of speech; it is tyrannical, unnatural, perverse, pathological and sinful’. Jacques Derrida –founder of structuralism, 1950
Reading is difficult!
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Reading is difficult because it requires:
1. Rapid visual identification of letters and their order; even in experienced good readers this process is rate limiting
2. Rapid auditory translation into the sounds they stand for
3. Background knowledge of ‘phonology’-how words can be split down into separate sounds - phonemes
All these processes depend on the timing properties of magnocellular neurones
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Prevalence of Dyslexia
boys dyslexic boys dyslexic girls girls
girls boys
Reading is difficult!
1 in 3 of US & UK 11yr olds leave primary school unable to read properly
This is cruelty; they cannot cope with high school; they lose all self confidence
Reading failure is the commonest cause of childhood misery, depression, even suicide
Commonest disability among College students
OR frustration, aggression, crime; 75% of those in gaol are illiterate.
Nevertheless, if they survive school, dyslexics are often highly talented –original, artistic, entrepreneurial
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The Hurt of Dyslexia
“I am in the slow readers’ group.
My brother is in the football team My sister is a server.
My little brother was a wise man in the Christmas play.
I am in the slow readers group.
That is all I am in. I hate it.”
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Developmental Dyslexia is a complex syndrome- not just readingReading and spelling significantly below that expected
from subject’s age and intelligence, despite good health, teaching and cultural experience
Symptoms• Reading/IQ discrepancy• Visual sequencing problems• Auditory sequencing problems
-poor phonology• Speech impairments (lisps,
spoonerisms, mispronunciations• Very bad spelling• Left/right confusions, mixed
handedness• General sequencing problems• Clumsiness & incoordination –
‘soft’ cerebellar signs
History• Family History (Genetic) of
language, literacy and psychiatric problems
• 20% of all boys.• Difficult birth• Delayed milestones (crawling,
walking, speech)• Developmental dyspraxia, dysphasia
hyperactivity• Autoimmune problems: asthma,
eczema, hayfever• Omega 3 (fish oil) deficiency
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2/3rds of backward readers complain of visual difficulties with reading. Often their eyes wobble when they try to read. This may be due to weak visual magnocellularfunction
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Reading is primarily a visual process
Visual processing
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Large magnocellular cells (100x p- cells in area) – are for timing visual events: fast responses, sensitive to low contrast, motion, flicker, for focussing visual attention and controlling eye movements
Most retinal ganglion cells are parvocellular (small): for colour, fine detail, high contrast
Magnocellular Retinal Ganglion cells keep eyes
still
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Visual magnocellular system directs visual attention & eye movements.
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The visual magnocellular systemis mildly impaired in dyslexics
• 30% smaller LGN magnocells post mortem
• Reduced and delayed evoked brain waves
• Unstable eye control
• Reduced visual motion sensitivity• Reduced activation of cortical
motion areas (FMRI) • Lower sensitivity to contrast• Lower sensitivity to flicker• Lower stereoacuity• Reduced visual jitter• Weaker visual attention - slower
visual search• Visual crowding• Mini left neglect - clock drawing• Prolonged line motion illusion• Reduced Ternus effect
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Abnormal magnocells in dyslexic brain
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Delayed Brain Potentials Evoked by Moving Visual Stimulus
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• The eyes have to convergefor near vision when reading
• Control of vergence eye movements is dominated by the visual magno system
• The vergence eye movement control system is the most vulnerable to drugs and disease
• Dyslexics have very unstable vergence control
Vergence control
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Magnocellular processing sharpens:
into
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Weak magnocellular system causes unstable vision - oscillopsia
“The letters go all blurry”
“The letters move over each other, so I can’t tell which is which”
“The letters seem to float all over the page”
“The letters move in and out of the page”
“The letters split and go double”
“The c moved over the r, so it looked like another c”
“The p joined up with the c”
“d’s and b’s sort of get the wrong way round”
“The page goes all glary and hurts my eyes”
“I keep on losing my place”
“The words are all tangled up inside my head. I’m confused. I get tangled up in writing the words, and I stop.”
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Interventions that improve m- function and eye control often improve reading
In some children with poor eye control temporary blanking of left eye improves vergence control and reading by 2 months/m (proved by randomised controlled trials –RCT)
In older children exercises can stabilise binocular fixation and greatly improve reading (proved by RCT)
Yellow or blue coloured filters can often rebalance visual M-input and greatly improve reading (av. 2 ms/m -proved by RCTs)
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Yellow Filters• Although they do not contribute to
colour vision, retinal magnocellularganglion cells are most responsive to yellow light
• So in some children yellow filters can increase magnocellular and visual motion sensitivity and binocular control, hence improve reading
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Yellow filters can improve reading
Increase in literacy in 3 months
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
reading spelling
mon
ths
yellow
placebo
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Blue makes the letters keep still!
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Blue filters improved reading even more
Increase in literacy
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
reading spelling
mon
ths
blue
placebo
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B - Dull Shifting Y - Highly Labile
Blue light
M-system
headache
hypothalamus
Diurnal rhythms
Blue entrains hypothalamus clock
to day length
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Blue can also improve headachesDyslexicartist portrays her
migraine!
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The colour choice of 297 reading disabled 9 year olds
no colour preference49%
blue 25%
yellow 26%
1
2
3
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Reading age increase in 3 months
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
nil grey normal,readingrecovery
(phonology)
yellow occlusion search blue omega 3sRA
incr
. (m
onth
s)
Elucidating the role of the visual system in reading has enabled us to develop techniques for helping most of the dyslexics we see
*
* *
** **
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Magno deficit causes many dyslexics to confuse the visual order of letters!
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The auditory/phonological pathway
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Hearing differences between letter sounds requires sensitivity to changes in frequency and intensity
2nd and 3rd formants ascend in frequency for ‘b’; but descend for ‘d’.
Test sensitivity to warbles
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Meltham Primary School
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Det
ectio
n T
hres
hold
(M
od. I
ndex
)
0
1
2
3
0.00
0.04
0.08
0.12
0.16
Det
ectio
n T
hres
hold
(M
od. I
ndex
)
0.000
0.004
0.008
0.012
Dyslexics (N=21) Controls (N=23)
2 Hz FM
240 Hz FM
40 Hz FM
Dyslexics (N=21) Controls (N=23)
p<0.001 p=0.027
p=0.360, N.S.
Controls (N=23)Dyslexics (N=21)
Witton, Talcott, Hansen, Richardson, Griffiths, Rees, Stein & Green, 1998
40 Hz FM
240 Hz FM
2 Hz FM
• Slow frequency changes in speech are tracked in real time by large magnocells in the auditory system
Developmental Dyslexics are less sensitive to changes in sound frequency and intensity –
warbles.
500 Hz pure tone
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Many dyslexics also have
phonological problems,
partly caused by auditory
magnocellularimpairments
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Auditory and visual magnocellular sensitivity determines over half of the differences in children’s reading ability
The most important determinant of overall reading ability is magnocellular neuronal sensitivity. Encouraging because
this can be improved
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What causes this general
magnocellularimpairment?
GeneticNutrition
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• Are particular genes associated with poor reading?
• Analyse the DNA of father, mother and their dyslexic and normally reading children
• 400 Oxford families
• EU consortium; 1000 families, 2000 cases, 2000 controls, 50,000 markers per case
Genetic linkage
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C6 KIAA gene controls neuronal migration during early brain development in utero. Downregulationmay explain mismigrationand impaired development of magnocellularneurones
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Autoimmune conditions in dyslexics and controls
migraineuveitis
asthma
eczema
allergies
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
1 2 3 4 5
% a
ffect
ed
DyslexicControl
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Cod Liver Oil Queue, 1950
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‘Most Britons were better fed in 1943 than in today’ Dr Hugh Sinclair, Magdalen College, Oxford
• Aged 28, he persuaded the WWII government to provide free cod liver oil and orange juice to all pregnant mothers and young children • 20% of the brain consists of omega-3s, mainly DHA• Essential for flexible membranes – rapid neural responses• Modern diet very deficient in fish oil omega–3s
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Visual Dyslexia & Diet
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Durham study - Omega 3 EPA supplements helped dyspraxic children to improve their concentration and
their reading (RCT – Richardson & Montgomery)
Increase in Reading age in 3 months
0
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n-3 placebo
RA
incr
ease
n-3
placebo
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Fish oils, vitamins & mineral supplements reduced offences in Young Offenders by 1/3rd
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
1.4
Before Supplementation During Supplementation
Rat
io o
f R
ate
of D
isci
plin
ary
Inci
dent
s S
uppl
emen
tatio
n/B
asel
ine
Active
Placebo
Error bars at 2SE to indicate the 95% confidence interval
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So fish is indeed good for the brain!
• By increasing membrane flexibility, improves magnocellularresponses
• Help focussing attention, hence improves reading
• Improves self-control, hence reduces violence
• Improves memory (Alzheimer’s)
• Prevents accumulation of Alzheimer’s protein
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ConclusionsConclusions
••Fundamental auditory, visual & motor Fundamental auditory, visual & motor temporaltemporalsequencing requirements of speech and reading are sequencing requirements of speech and reading are mediated by mediated by magnocellularmagnocellular neuronal systems in the neuronal systems in the brainbrain••These are impaired in dyslexiaThese are impaired in dyslexia••Treatments that improve mTreatments that improve m-- function improve function improve readingreading•Weak magnocellular function may result from:GeneticGenetic vulnerabilityFatty acid (fish oil)Fatty acid (fish oil) deficiency•These weaknesses cancan be remedied: auditory and phonological training, eye exercises, coloured filters, fish oil supplements
BUT… dyslexia carries talent as well
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John SteinJohn Stein
Support The Dyslexia Research Trust
(www.dyslexic.org.uk)
Wobbles, warbles and fish - the magnocellularbrain basis of
dyslexia
DDD
RRR
TTT