Exploratory Examination of Lexical and Neuroanatomic Correlates of Neglect Dyslexia

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Olga Boukrina, Kessler Foundation; Peii Chen, Kessler Foundation; Tamara Budinoska, Kessler Foundation; Anna Barrett, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-05-01
• Publisher: American Psychological Association
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2021 APA, all rights reserved
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/neu0000619
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Neuropsychology
• Volume: 34
• Issue: 4
• Start Page: 404
• End Page: 419
• Grant/Funding Information: Data collection for this project was supported by NIH/NICHD/NCMRR grant K24-HD062647, R01NS055808-04, K02-NS47099, and NIDILRR grant 901F0037 to AMB (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00990353, NCT00350012, NCT00989430).
• Keywords: Psychology, Clinical; Right hemisphere; Anatomy; MRI; Psychology; reading; Attention; Neurosciences; Unilateral neglect; Visual word recognition; Model; neglect dyslexia; Reading aloud; right-brain stroke; Science & Technology; spatial neglect; Social Sciences; Neurosciences & Neurology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Visiospatial neglect; Spatial neglect; Lesion
• Research Categories: Biology, Neuroscience; Psychology, Cognitive; Health Sciences, Rehabilitation and Therapy; Health Sciences, Health Care Management

Abstract

Objective: This study examined lexical and neuroanatomic correlates of reading errors in individuals with spatial neglect, defined as a failure to respond to stimuli in the side of space opposite a brain lesion, causing functional disability. Method: One hundred and ten participants with left spatial neglect after right-hemisphere stroke read aloud a list of 36 words. Reading errors were scored as “contralesional” (error in the left half of the word) or as “other”. The influence of lexical processing on neglect dyslexia was studied with a stepwise regression using word frequency, orthographic neighborhood (number of same length neighbors that differ by 1 letter), bigram and trigram counts (number of words with the same 2- and 3-letter combinations), length, concreteness, and imageability as predictors. MRI/CT images of 92 patients were studied in a voxelwise lesion-symptom analysis (VLSM). Results: Longer length and more trigram neighbors increased, while higher concreteness reduced, the rate of contralesional errors. VLSM revealed lesions in the inferior temporal sulcus, middle temporal and angular gyri, precuneus, temporal pole, and temporo-parietal white matter associated with the rate of contralesional errors. Conclusions: Orthographic competitors may decrease word salience, while semantic concreteness may help constrain the selection of available word options when it is based on degraded information from the left side of the word. Public Significance Statement: Reading impairments arising after stroke represent a devastating problem, restricting an individual’s life participation, independence and quality of life. In this study, we examined reading impairments in neglect dyslexia, a symptom characterized by reading errors in the half of the word opposite a brain lesion. To help improve the current understanding of this symptom, we identified specific word characteristics and stroke locations that are associated with increased rates of neglect dyslexia reading errors.