Posterior parietal cortex and developmental dyslexia

Abstract

Dyslexia is defined as a specific reading disorder despite normal intelligence and conventional teaching. One of the most influential theories attempting to explain problems suffered by dyslexics assumes that dyslexia is caused by deficits of the magnocellular system. This system, generally responsible for processing fast sensory information, projects mostly to the parietal cortex. Consistent with this theory, dyslexics should have problems with tasks which specifically involve parietal cortex. In the article, we review data and show that, indeed, dyslexics have problems with fast attention shifts, show some symptoms of mild unilateral neglect syndrome and have abnormal saccadic and pursuit eye movements. Little is known about visuo-motor coordination and mental rotation, the tasks in which the parietal cortex is thought to play important roles.