Individualized Prediction of Reading Comprehension Ability Using Gray Matter Volume.

Zaixu Cui; Mengmeng Su; Liangjie Li; Hua Shu; Gaolang Gong

Reading comprehension is a crucial reading skill for learning and putatively contains 2 key components: reading decoding and linguistic comprehension. Current understanding of the neural mechanism underlying these reading comprehension components is lacking, and whether and how neuroanatomical features can be used to predict these 2 skills remain largely unexplored. In the present study, we analyzed a large sample from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) dataset and successfully built multivariate predictive models for these 2 skills using whole-brain gray matter volume features. The results showed that these models effectively captured individual differences in these 2 skills and were able to significantly predict these components of reading comprehension for unseen individuals. The strict cross-validation using the HCP cohort and another independent cohort of children demonstrated the model generalizability. The identified gray matter regions contributing to the skill prediction consisted of a wide range of regions covering the putative reading, cerebellum, and subcortical systems. Interestingly, there were gender differences in the predictive models, with the female-specific model overestimating the males' abilities. Moreover, the identified contributing gray matter regions for the female-specific andmale-specific models exhibited considerable differences, supporting a gender-dependent neuroanatomical substrate for reading comprehension.

Cerebral Cortex, 2018, Vol 28, Issue 5, p1656

1047-3211

Academic Journal

10.1093/cercor/bhx061