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Science 16 March 2001:
Vol. 291. no. 5511, pp. 2165 - 2167
DOI: 10.1126/science.1057179
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Reports

Dyslexia: Cultural Diversity and Biological Unity

E. Paulesu,12* J.-F. Démonet,3 F. Fazio,24 E. McCrory,5 V. Chanoine,3 N. Brunswick,6 S. F. Cappa,7 G. Cossu,8 M. Habib,9 C. D. Frith,6 U. Frith5

The recognition of dyslexia as a neurodevelopmental disorder has been hampered by the belief that it is not a specific diagnostic entity because it has variable and culture-specific manifestations. In line with this belief, we found that Italian dyslexics, using a shallow orthography which facilitates reading, performed better on reading tasks than did English and French dyslexics. However, all dyslexics were equally impaired relative to their controls on reading and phonological tasks. Positron emission tomography scans during explicit and implicit reading showed the same reduced activity in a region of the left hemisphere in dyslexics from all three countries, with the maximum peak in the middle temporal gyrus and additional peaks in the inferior and superior temporal gyri and middle occipital gyrus. We conclude that there is a universal neurocognitive basis for dyslexia and that differences in reading performance among dyslexics of different countries are due to different orthographies.

1 Psychology Department, University of Milan Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
2 INB-CNR, Scientific Institute H San Raffaele, Milan, Italy.
3 INSERM U455, Hôpital Purpan, Toulouse, France.
4 Neuroscience and Biomedical Technologies Department, University of Milan Bicocca, Milan, Italy.
5 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, UK.
6 Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, Institute of Neurology, London, UK.
7 Psychology Department, University "Vita e Salute H San Raffaele", Milan, Italy.
8 Institute of Human Physiology, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
9 Centre de Recherche Institut Universitaire de Gériatrie, Montréal, Quebec, Canada.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed at University of Milan Bicocca. E-mail: eraldo.paulesu{at}unimib.it

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