Functional magnetic resonance imaging sequential-finger movement activation differentiating good and poor writers

Abstract

Good and poor fifth-grade writers differed, after controlling for multiple comparisons, in 42 brain regions on group maps and then individual brain analyses for functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) contrast between tapping adjacent fingers sequentially and same finger repeatedly. Of these, 11 regions were correlated with both handwriting and spelling (transcription). Gender differences on the fMRI contrast, with girls more activated, occurred only in left superior parietal, which was correlated with handwriting and spelling. Significance of serial organization of fingers for handwriting and spelling is discussed.

Keywords:

• Finger sequencing
• Serial organization of behavior
• Good child writers
• Poor child writers
• Functional magnetic resonance imaging
• Writing tasks
• Brain and writing development

Grants HD 25858 and P50 33812 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) supported this research. The authors thank Jeff Stevenson for his technical help in developing the magnetic resonance imaging protocols used on the Philips Achieva 3T Scanner.

Notes

¹Longitudinal correlations were also computed between behavioral measures of composition and the fMRI contrast and are reported in Berninger, Richards, and Abbott (2009), and Richards and Berninger (2009).