Reading Comprehension & Brain Activation to Words and Passages
Time Period: Summer 2014 - Summer 2018
Languages Used: Shell, MATLAB
Statistical Methods: Partial Least Squares Correlation (PLSC)
This was my first project in graduate school. It taught me the basics of programming and fMRI, as well as a lot about data-driven multivariate approaches like PLSC. We investigated whether there was a relationship between someone’s reading comprehension ability and the way their brain reacted to words and longer text, both spoken and printed. We found that better comprehenders showed more activation in regions often used for understanding longer texts, while poorer comprehenders showed more activation in regions associated with executive function and memory.
Output
Summer, 2018: A publication detailing these results has been published in Brain and Language.
Ryherd, K., Jasinska, K., Van Dyke, J. A., Hung, Y.-H., Baron, E., Mencl, W. E., … Landi, N. (2018). Cortical regions supporting reading comprehension skill for single words and discourse. Brain and Language, 186, 32–43. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2018.08.001
October, 2015: Reading comprehension ability and semantic activation to single words and discourse: An fMRI partial least squares analysis.
