Microgyrus
Encyclopedia
A microgyrus is an area of the cerebral cortex
that includes only four cortical layers instead of six.
Microgyria are believed by some to be part of the genetic lack of prenatal development which is a cause of, or one of the causes of, dyslexia
.
Albert Galaburda of Harvard Medical School
noticed that language center
s in dyslexic brains showed microscopic flaws known as ectopias and microgyria (Galaburda et al., 2006, Nature Neuroscience 9(10): 1213-1217). Both affect the normal six-layer structure of the cortex
. These flaws affect connectivity and functionality of the cortex in critical areas related to sound and visual processing
. These and similar structural abnormalities may be the basis of the inevitable and hard to overcome difficulty in reading.
Cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is constituted of up to six horizontal layers, each of which has a different...
that includes only four cortical layers instead of six.
Microgyria are believed by some to be part of the genetic lack of prenatal development which is a cause of, or one of the causes of, dyslexia
Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a very broad term defining a learning disability that impairs a person's fluency or comprehension accuracy in being able to read, and which can manifest itself as a difficulty with phonological awareness, phonological decoding, orthographic coding, auditory short-term memory, or rapid...
.
Albert Galaburda of Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
noticed that language center
Language center
The term language center refers to the areas of the brain which serve a particular function for speech processing and production.- Current scientific consensus :...
s in dyslexic brains showed microscopic flaws known as ectopias and microgyria (Galaburda et al., 2006, Nature Neuroscience 9(10): 1213-1217). Both affect the normal six-layer structure of the cortex
Cerebral cortex
The cerebral cortex is a sheet of neural tissue that is outermost to the cerebrum of the mammalian brain. It plays a key role in memory, attention, perceptual awareness, thought, language, and consciousness. It is constituted of up to six horizontal layers, each of which has a different...
. These flaws affect connectivity and functionality of the cortex in critical areas related to sound and visual processing
Visual processing
Visual processing is the sequence of steps that information takes as it flows from visual sensors to cognitive processing. The sensors may be zoological eyes or they may be cameras or sensor arrays that sense various portions of the electromagnetic spectrum....
. These and similar structural abnormalities may be the basis of the inevitable and hard to overcome difficulty in reading.