Poster A16, Tuesday, August 20, 2019, 10:15 am – 12:00 pm, Restaurant Hall
A Neurogenetic Study of Dyslexia Risk in Neonates
Stanimira Georgieva1, Topun Austin2, Gusztav Belteki3, Zoe Kourtzi1, Victoria Leong1;1Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, 2Department of Paediatrics, University of Cambridge, 3Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Cambridge
Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental difficulty in learning to read. Several candidate risk genes have now been identified, but their relationship to the neurobiological etiology of dyslexia remains unknown. It has been suggested that polymorphisms in these susceptibility genes (which are involved in neurodevelopmental processes in-utero) produce abnormalities in cortical microcircuitry, as well as structural and functional connectivity that lead to deficits in neural oscillatory processing of speech sounds. Here, we assess whether the predicted associations exist between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from four major dyslexia susceptibility loci (DCDC2, KIAA0319, ROBO1 and DYX1C1), and neural speech processing EEG indices in 85 neonates at high- or low-familial risk for dyslexia. Results of genotyping revealed that, for 82 of the 85 infants, Stepwise Discriminant Function Analysis identified two SNPs (rs333491 on ROBO1 and rs793862 on DCDC2) which significantly classified infants’ familiar dyslexia risk status above chance. Preliminary neural analysis further revealed higher values of 0-lagged phase-locking at a theta (4.7 Hz) rate to infant-directed speech for infants carrying the homozygous major allele of the ROBO1 SNP, as compared to both heterozygous and homozygous minor allele carriers. New data collection and neural analyses are on-going.
Themes: Language Genetics, Disorders: Developmental
Method: Electrophysiology (MEG/EEG/ECOG)