Neural Correlates of reading performance in bilingual and monolingual dyslexic individuals: Insights from fMRI and fNIRS Abstract The objective of the study to be presented was to investigate reading performance and brain activation associated with reading for bilingual and monolingual dyslexics (DDB-DDM), and typical bilinguals as Controls (C). The behavioral results showed that DDB outperformed DDM in all reading components in Portuguese. In the tasks applied in English, there was no significant difference in the performance of DDB compared to C. The results of the brain imaging for the task in Portuguese showed C presented significant activation of the left occipitotemporal and left inferior frontal gyrus while reading words. DDB and DDM, in turn, showed deactivation of left temporoparietal region and no significant activation in the left occipitotemporal region or left inferior frontal gyrus. For the FAST LOC task, DDB showed hypoactivity in the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) during word reading, both in English and Portuguese. The findings provide evidence for a possible positive impact of bilingualism on the reading performance of dyslexics. Furthermore, a second study contrasting the fMRI results with fNRIS is being conducted to verify the effectiveness of fNIRS regarding language lateralization in pre-op patients.About the Speakers Aline Fay de Azevedo is a Professor in the Linguistics Graduate Program at the Pontifical Catholic University of RS (PUCRS), Head of the Languages Department, researcher at the Brain Institute (BraIns) and coordinator of the extension course in Bilingual Education. She holds a PhD in Linguistics with research carried out at BraIns (Bilingualism, dyslexia and fMRI), a post-doctoral fellowship at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in the field of Psycholinguistics, focusing on Biliteracy and Assessment. The product of her post-doctoral fellowship was the Battey for Assessing Metaphonological skills in Bilinguals (BAMBI). She coordinates the research group NeuroEdTech Lab - Neuroscience and Education Technology Laboratory – CNPq. She is an Associate Researcher at the National Science for Education Network (Rede CpE- Catedra UNESCO). She was part of the ACERTA and Neuroeducation project (CNPq) at the Brain Institute from 2013 to 2023, where she researched dyslexic bilinguals and monolinguals and the neural bases of dyslexia with the use of fMRI. She is responsible for the project Literacy and EdTech: a study on the impact of GraphoGame on Literacy, in partnership with BraIns. She is a senior researcher in the project “Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on child and adult language: focus on development and learning to read” - CAPES. Her areas of interest are the neural bases of dyslexia in bilinguals and monolinguals and fMRI, neurobiology of reading, neuroscience and education, teaching English as an additional language and Education 3.0/4.0. Bernardo Fay Avila is a medical student (11th semester – to be graduated in December 2025) at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS). He has been a CNPq scholarship holder at the Brain Institute of Rio Grande do Sul (BraIns) since 2022, with research focusing on projects related to the development of an epileptic seizure detector device, the use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in the treatment of patients with Major Depressive Disorder and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, and also validation of the use of Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in the detection of the laterality of brain language areas. His areas of interest encompass neuroscience, neuroimaging and speech. Tags Language, Interculturality and Literacies Research events Mar 27 2025 16.00 - 17.00 Neural Correlates of reading performance in bilingual and monolingual dyslexic individuals: Insights from fMRI and fNIRS In this LIL seminar, Dr Aline Fay de Azevedo and medical student, Mr Bernardo Fay Avila, will present their work. Charteris Land 5.02 and Zoom Please register for this event via Eventbrite
Neural Correlates of reading performance in bilingual and monolingual dyslexic individuals: Insights from fMRI and fNIRS Abstract The objective of the study to be presented was to investigate reading performance and brain activation associated with reading for bilingual and monolingual dyslexics (DDB-DDM), and typical bilinguals as Controls (C). The behavioral results showed that DDB outperformed DDM in all reading components in Portuguese. In the tasks applied in English, there was no significant difference in the performance of DDB compared to C. The results of the brain imaging for the task in Portuguese showed C presented significant activation of the left occipitotemporal and left inferior frontal gyrus while reading words. DDB and DDM, in turn, showed deactivation of left temporoparietal region and no significant activation in the left occipitotemporal region or left inferior frontal gyrus. For the FAST LOC task, DDB showed hypoactivity in the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) during word reading, both in English and Portuguese. The findings provide evidence for a possible positive impact of bilingualism on the reading performance of dyslexics. Furthermore, a second study contrasting the fMRI results with fNRIS is being conducted to verify the effectiveness of fNIRS regarding language lateralization in pre-op patients.About the Speakers Aline Fay de Azevedo is a Professor in the Linguistics Graduate Program at the Pontifical Catholic University of RS (PUCRS), Head of the Languages Department, researcher at the Brain Institute (BraIns) and coordinator of the extension course in Bilingual Education. She holds a PhD in Linguistics with research carried out at BraIns (Bilingualism, dyslexia and fMRI), a post-doctoral fellowship at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS) in the field of Psycholinguistics, focusing on Biliteracy and Assessment. The product of her post-doctoral fellowship was the Battey for Assessing Metaphonological skills in Bilinguals (BAMBI). She coordinates the research group NeuroEdTech Lab - Neuroscience and Education Technology Laboratory – CNPq. She is an Associate Researcher at the National Science for Education Network (Rede CpE- Catedra UNESCO). She was part of the ACERTA and Neuroeducation project (CNPq) at the Brain Institute from 2013 to 2023, where she researched dyslexic bilinguals and monolinguals and the neural bases of dyslexia with the use of fMRI. She is responsible for the project Literacy and EdTech: a study on the impact of GraphoGame on Literacy, in partnership with BraIns. She is a senior researcher in the project “Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on child and adult language: focus on development and learning to read” - CAPES. Her areas of interest are the neural bases of dyslexia in bilinguals and monolinguals and fMRI, neurobiology of reading, neuroscience and education, teaching English as an additional language and Education 3.0/4.0. Bernardo Fay Avila is a medical student (11th semester – to be graduated in December 2025) at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS). He has been a CNPq scholarship holder at the Brain Institute of Rio Grande do Sul (BraIns) since 2022, with research focusing on projects related to the development of an epileptic seizure detector device, the use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in the treatment of patients with Major Depressive Disorder and Non-Suicidal Self-Injury, and also validation of the use of Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) in the detection of the laterality of brain language areas. His areas of interest encompass neuroscience, neuroimaging and speech. Tags Language, Interculturality and Literacies Research events Mar 27 2025 16.00 - 17.00 Neural Correlates of reading performance in bilingual and monolingual dyslexic individuals: Insights from fMRI and fNIRS In this LIL seminar, Dr Aline Fay de Azevedo and medical student, Mr Bernardo Fay Avila, will present their work. Charteris Land 5.02 and Zoom Please register for this event via Eventbrite
Mar 27 2025 16.00 - 17.00 Neural Correlates of reading performance in bilingual and monolingual dyslexic individuals: Insights from fMRI and fNIRS In this LIL seminar, Dr Aline Fay de Azevedo and medical student, Mr Bernardo Fay Avila, will present their work.
