ABSTRACT
Neuroimaging technology has provided researchers with access to the brain on multipledimensions,includinganatomyandfunctionalactivity.Advancesinthis technologyhavevastlyimprovedourknowledgeoftheneuralcircuitryrelatedto reading,andtheroleofphonologicalprocessinginreadingskill.Thephonologicaldeˆcithypothesis(PDH;I.Y.Liberman,Shankweiler,&A.M.Liberman, 1989; Shankweiler & Crain, 1986; Shankweiler et al., 1995) is a theory that posits deˆcitsinphonologicalprocessing;connectingphonemestolettersisthecore deˆcitofreadingdisability(RD).Inthischapter,wepresentanoverviewofwhat imagingtellsusaboutthereadingcircuitinthebrain.Wethentakealookatthe historyofneuroimagingresearchonskilledandimpairedreading,andexamine how the PDH has facilitated the progression of knowledge in this area. Finally, weaddresscurrentandfuturedirectionsofresearch,includingemergingresearch onprecursorstoreadingskillsanddeˆcits,cross-culturalstudies,andreading interventions.
