What is Dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a developmental language disorder, characterized by deficits in phonological awareness, the explicit awareness of phonemes as separate entities, as operationalized with tasks that require the segmentation of words into their constituent phonemes and the manipulation of these units. These deficits lead to difficulties in reading decoding (i.e., accuracy) that, in severe cases, persist into adulthood. Although reading comprehension is constrained by decoding skill, comprehension is frequently better, in keeping with better listening comprehension, i.e., the ability to understand spoken language, thus distinguishing dyslexia from developmental dysphasia. Prevalence is generally estimated to be 5 to 17% in the school-age population.The purpose of our research on dyslexia and learning disabilities is the following:- Understand the brain basis of learning disabilities- Predict future reading abilities and academic outcomes using structural and functional neuroimaging methods in addition to other available methods such as behavior.

Research findings

Please see our newsletter for the most recent findings.

Members

Principal Investigator:

Fumiko Hoeft, MD, PhD

Postdoctoral Scholars:

Jessica M. Black, PhD (Project Manager)

Masanori Nagamine (MD)

Graduate Students:

Nicole Digby (PGSP, PhD)

Joshua Heitzmann (PGSP, PhD)

Candy Ho (PGSP-Stanford Consortium, PsyD)

Stuart Red (PGSP, PhD)

Meena Saleh (PGSP, PhD)

Leanne Stanley (PGSP, PhD)

Hiroko Tanaka (PGSP, PhD)

Nahal Zakerani (PGSP, PhD)

Collaborators:

John Gabrieli PhD (MIT)

Charles Hulme PhD (Univ. of York, UK)

Connie Juel PhD (Stanford University)

Marcel Adam Just PhD (Carnegie-Mellon Univ)

Heikki Lyytinen PhD (University of Jyväskylä, Finland)

Bruce McCandliss PhD (Sackler Institute, NYC)

Ann Meyler PhD (Carnegie-Mellon Univ)

Sumit Niogi PhD (Sackler Institute, NYC)

Past Members: Nobuhisa Kobayashi MD PhD, Kaori Koshiishi MD PhD, Alexander Gantman PsyD, Dana Wittenberg PsyD, Sofia Hall-Gallagher, Emily Dennis, Xavier Rotimi Ojo

Contact: Fumiko Hoeft: 1-888-411-BNRC (2672), fumiko (at) Stanford (dot) edu

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