Artificial grammar learning as a tool to study the underlying deficits in dyslexia across development.

Dyslexia is characterised by deficits in learning to read and spell, thought to be caused by specific difficulties with phonological processing. However, some research has
suggests that the underlying deficits of dyslexia may be due to weaknesses in implicit learning or impairments in sequence processing, which is related to language grammar learning. Thus, it is not clear whether dyslexics have fundamental sequence learning impairments (a cognitive domain-general deficit) or if deficits are primarily restricted to phonological processing difficulties. The project aims to disentangle these competing hypotheses and shed light on the underlying causes of dyslexia. It will develop behavioural implicit learning tasks using novel artificial grammar paradigms to investigate how individuals with dyslexia and control participants learn and process artificial grammars of different levels of complexity, including structurally identical sequences consisting of either phonological stimuli (nonsense words) or non-linguistic sounds (e.g., tones). Moreover, after the initial work with adults the project will test children to understand the developmental trajectory of these abilities. The last component will involve fMRI scanning to identify any differences in the function of brain regions between individuals with dyslexia and controls. The outcome of this project is advancing our understanding on the nature of dyslexia, and how the network of brain areas involved in sequence processing might vary with dyslexia
severity or change over the course of development.