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Brain Sciences
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Exploring Neurophysiology Aspect in Dyslexia
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Exploring Neurophysiology Aspect in Dyslexia

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neurolinguistics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 November 2026 | Viewed by 1362

Editor

Prof. Dr. Salim Abu-Rabia

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Education, Department of Learning and Instructional Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa 3103301, Israel
Interests: reading disabilities; reading difficulties; cognitive aspects of language learning; reading in different orthographies; intervention programs for at-risk students
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue addresses dyslexia from multiple perspectives and several key topics, including the neurophysiology of dyslexia, dyslexia in bilingual and trilingual contexts, the relationship between dyslexia and IQ, comparisons between dyslexic learners and typical readers, intervention programs for dyslexic learners, and dyslexia across different orthographies.

Dyslexia is widely recognized as a heritable condition that shows familial aggregation. Longitudinal studies indicate that dyslexia is persistent and chronic rather than a transient developmental delay, with poor and skilled readers generally maintaining their relative positions along the reading ability spectrum over time.

Importantly, IQ is not considered a defining criterion of dyslexia. Many individuals with dyslexia demonstrate average or above-average intelligence relative to their age group. Nevertheless, they typically exhibit core cognitive deficits in phonological processing. These include deficiency in phonemic awareness, verbal short-term memory, and rapid automatized naming, which are consistently observed across affected individuals.

Several models have been proposed to explain the multifactorial nature of dyslexia, including the phonological deficit hypothesis, the magnocellular theory, and other accounts related to cognitive brain functions underlying reading.

Prof. Dr. Salim Abu-Rabia
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Brain Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • dyslexia
  • neurophysiology
  • cognitive deficits
  • phonological processing

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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22 pages, 1398 KB  
Article
Phoneme Monitoring in Developmental Dyslexia: Pupillometric Evidence for Cognitive Rather than Acoustic Origins of Phonological Deficits
by Marina Rossi, Massimiliano Canzi and Tamara V. Rathcke
Brain Sci. 2026, 16(7), 697; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci16070697 - 30 Jun 2026
Viewed by 285
Abstract
Background. Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent difficulties acquiring fluent reading. A core feature is impaired phonological processing, though its etiology remains debated. Two competing accounts attribute phonological deficits either to reduced acoustic sensitivity to lexical stress cues or [...] Read more.
Background. Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent difficulties acquiring fluent reading. A core feature is impaired phonological processing, though its etiology remains debated. Two competing accounts attribute phonological deficits either to reduced acoustic sensitivity to lexical stress cues or to insufficient cognitive support during phoneme processing. Methods. To test these accounts, 57 Italian children (28 with DD, 29 typically developing) completed a phoneme monitoring task in which targets appeared in strong or weak syllables, varying in acoustic salience. A composite acoustic salience factor was derived from target cue properties, and an individual cognitive factor was computed from IQ, working memory, and shifting attention. Pupillometry was used to assess auditory sensitivity to acoustic salience and cognitive effort in real time. Results. The results showed that, behaviourally, children with DD showed significantly lower target identification accuracy and d’-sensitivity. However, pupil dilation during target processing did not differ between the two groups, while children with DD showed reduced pupillary responses on trials involving distractor rejection and missed targets. These physiological patterns correlated primarily with individual cognitive scores rather than acoustic salience. Conclusions. Taken together, these findings point toward an important role of individually varying cognitive resources during phonological processing and highlight the value of pupillometry as a sensitive, real-time index of cognitive engagement during a phonological task. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Neurophysiology Aspect in Dyslexia)
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Review

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19 pages, 876 KB  
Review
Developmental Reading-Network Reorganization in Developmental Dyslexia: A Neuroplasticity Framework
by Sujood Kitany, Salim Abu-Rabia and Rami Arfaiya
Brain Sci. 2026, 16(8), 833; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci16080833 - 6 Aug 2026
Viewed by 425
Abstract
Developmental dyslexia is a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent difficulties in accurate and fluent word reading despite adequate intelligence, educational opportunity, and intact sensory function. Contemporary neurobiological models have progressively shifted from localization-based explanations toward network-oriented perspectives emphasizing large-scale brain connectivity, developmental [...] Read more.
Developmental dyslexia is a common neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent difficulties in accurate and fluent word reading despite adequate intelligence, educational opportunity, and intact sensory function. Contemporary neurobiological models have progressively shifted from localization-based explanations toward network-oriented perspectives emphasizing large-scale brain connectivity, developmental maturation, and neuroplasticity. Nevertheless, the developmental mechanisms underlying early right-hemisphere recruitment remain incompletely understood. Although increased right-hemisphere activation has traditionally been interpreted as a compensatory response to left-hemisphere dysfunction, accumulating evidence from longitudinal neuroimaging, intervention, and developmental studies indicates that this explanation alone does not adequately account for the heterogeneity of neurobiological findings observed across individuals with developmental dyslexia. This narrative review synthesizes evidence from developmental neurobiology, network neuroscience, longitudinal neuroimaging, and intervention research to examine the biological processes underlying early right-hemisphere recruitment. Across the reviewed literature, developmental dyslexia is increasingly characterized by atypical maturation of distributed reading networks involving alterations in white-matter development, functional connectivity, hemispheric lateralization, and experience-dependent neuroplasticity. Collectively, these findings suggest that reading networks remain dynamically modifiable throughout literacy acquisition and that multiple developmental pathways may contribute to diverse neurobiological and behavioral outcomes. Building on this evidence, we propose a Developmental Neuroplasticity Framework for Reading Network Reorganization that integrates existing neurobiological models within a unified developmental perspective. Rather than proposing a new neurobiological mechanism, the framework seeks to explain the heterogeneous patterns of early right-hemisphere recruitment that are not fully accounted for by compensation-based interpretations alone. Specifically, it conceptualizes early right-hemisphere recruitment as one possible adaptive developmental outcome emerging from interactions among early neurodevelopmental vulnerability, distributed network connectivity, developmental neuroplasticity, and environmental experience. By integrating evidence that has largely been considered within separate theoretical perspectives, the framework generates empirically testable predictions regarding developmental trajectories, network reorganization, and intervention-related variability, while providing a conceptual basis for earlier identification of children at risk and the development of more targeted, developmentally informed intervention strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Exploring Neurophysiology Aspect in Dyslexia)
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