Todd L. Richards|Virginia W. Berninger|Pat Stock|Leah Altemeier|Pamala Trivedi|Kenneth R. Maravilla
Differences between good and poor child writers on fMRI contrasts for writing newly taught and highly practiced letter forms
University of Washington|University of Washington|University of Washington|University of Washington|University of Washington|University of Washington
fmri imaging 12 good 8 poor writers aged 11 wrote newly taught pseudoletter highly practiced letter letters formed components pseudoletter novel configuration corresponding written english letter form first fmri contrast newly taught pseudoletter highly practiced letter based group map good poor writers significantly activated many common regions poor writers showed spatially extensive brain activation good writers additional regions significant activation may reflect inefficiency learning new letter form second contrast highly practiced newly taught letters individual brain activation analyses based exact clusters showed good poor writers differed significantly activation left fusiform individual fusiform activation correlated significantly behavioral measures automatic letter writing expressive orthographic coding multiple regression individual fusiform activation individual orthographic coding entered explained significant variance written composition results discussed reference role orthographic loop internal letter form external letter writing hand writing letters composing overall results consistent prior brain behavioral studies writing