When: 12:00 pm
Speech production and visual word recognition both rely on long range white matter pathways which connect distant brain regions engaged in processing different aspects of linguistic information. We use diffusion MRI to quantify structural properties of white matter pathways in children and adults who have had typical or atypical development of speech production or reading. We use targeted behavioral measures in the same individuals in order to identify structure-function relationships. I will present recent data from our studies of reading development in full term and preterm born children, as well as results from our recent studies of white matter pathways in adults who stutter. We will discuss the contribution of these findings to our understanding of the extended language and reading pathways following typical and atypical development.