White matter plasticity and reading instruction: Widespread anatomical changes track the learning process

Abstract

White matter tissue properties correlate with childrens performance across domains ranging from reading, to math, to executive function. We use a longitudinal intervention design to examine experience-dependent growth in reading skills and white matter in a group of grade school aged, struggling readers. Diffusion MRI data were collected at regular intervals during an 8-week, intensive reading intervention. These measurements reveal large-scale changes throughout a collection of white matter tracts, in concert with growth in reading skill. Additionally, we identify tracts whose properties predict reading skill but remain fixed throughout the intervention, suggesting that some anatomical properties may stably predict the ease with which a child learns to read, while others dynamically reflect the effects of experience. These results underscore the importance of considering recent experience when interpreting cross-sectional anatomy-behavior correlations. Widespread changes throughout the white matter may be a hallmark of rapid plasticity associated with an intensive learning experience.