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Brain structure, phenotypic and genetic correlates of reading performance

Author

Listed:
  • Amaia Carrión-Castillo

    (Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL))

  • Pedro M. Paz-Alonso

    (Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL)
    Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science)

  • Manuel Carreiras

    (Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL)
    Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science
    University of the Basque Country)

Abstract

Reading is an evolutionarily recent development that recruits and tunes brain circuitry connecting primary- and language-processing regions. We investigated whether metrics of the brain’s physical structure correlate with reading performance and whether genetic variants affect this relationship. To this aim, we used the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development dataset (n = 9,013) of 9–10-year-olds and focused on 150 measures of cortical surface area (CSA) and thickness. Our results reveal that reading performance is associated with nine measures of brain structure including relevant regions of the reading network. Furthermore, we show that this relationship is partially mediated by genetic factors for two of these measures: the CSA of the entire left hemisphere and, specifically, of the left superior temporal gyrus CSA. These effects emphasize the complex and subtle interplay between genes, brain and reading, which is a partly heritable polygenic skill that relies on a distributed network.

Suggested Citation

  • Amaia Carrión-Castillo & Pedro M. Paz-Alonso & Manuel Carreiras, 2023. "Brain structure, phenotypic and genetic correlates of reading performance," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(7), pages 1120-1134, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nathum:v:7:y:2023:i:7:d:10.1038_s41562-023-01583-z
    DOI: 10.1038/s41562-023-01583-z
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