From Brains to Behaviours and Lollipops to Lidocaine: A Multifaceted Approach to Studying Skilled and Impaired Reading
Jacqueline Cummine
University of Alberta

In this talk, I will provide an overview of the work we have been conducting to better understand reading acquisition, refinement and maintenance in the context of the print-to-speech model. In each of these endeavours, we implement a variety of behavioural measurements and brain-based methodologies (i.e., fMRI and DTI) to characterize the role of the motor-speech system to basic reading processes. From children to adults, and lollipops to lidocaine, we have been consistently finding that the reading system is intricately connected to the motor-speech system, and consequently disrupted/facilitated by perturbations to the speech mechanism. Further, a consideration of how these findings fit (or do not fit) within the context of individuals with reading impairments will introduced. This includes a discussion of some of the challenges faced by individuals with reading impairments and an invitation to have a conversation about the role of self-efficacy training in the pathway to support adults with reading impairments.