James R. Booth

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

The overall goal of our research is to understand mechanisms of brain development. The theoretical framework guiding our research is that development should be associated with age-related increases in the specialization of and the interaction between brain regions. In other words, the brain should segregate into regions with unique computational principles but these regions should also become more integrated. Much of our work focuses on recently invented symbol systems involved in reading and math, so we are investigating how acquisition of these systems is constrained by evolutionarily older brain structures. Our models of typical brain function are also informed by our work in atypical conditions such as dyslexia (reading disability), dyscalculia (math disability) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The social and economic costs of illiteracy are enormous, yet we know little about its brain basis, so our work has important implications for the identification and treatment of developmental disorders. Recent work in our lab is investigating the role of educational interventions for changing brain function. We use multimodal neuroimaging to understand the developmental and learning processes including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and event-related potentials (ERPs). Over the years, we have emphasized the use of a priori effective connectivity models to understand the dynamics of brain function, but more recently we are employing large-scale functional connectivity methods to investigate patterns of segregation and integration.

Lab Affiliation

Principal Investigator: Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory

Education

PhD	Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park
MS	Psychology, University of Maryland, College Park
BA	Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Publications

Liu L, Wang W, You W, Li Y, Awati N, Zhao X, Booth JR & Peng D (2012). Similar alterations in brain function for phonological and semantic processing to visual characters in Chinese dyslexia. Neuropsychologia, 50, 2224-2232.

Bitan T & Booth JR (2012). Offline improvement in learning to read a novel orthography depends on direct letter instruction. Cognitive Science, 36, 896-918.

Prado J, Mutreja R, Zhang H, Mehta R, Desroches AS, Minas J & Booth JR (2011). Distinct representations of subtraction and multiplication in the neural systems for numerosity and language. Human Brain Mapping, 32, 1932-1947.

Cao F, Khalid K, Lee R, Brennan C, Yang Y, Li K, Bolger DJ & Booth JR (2011). Development of brain networks involved in spoken word processing of Mandarin Chinese. Neuroimage, 57, 750-759.

McNorgan C, Alvarez A, Bhullar A, Gayda J & Booth JR (2011). The prediction of reading skill several years later depends on age and brain region: Implication for developmental models of reading. Journal of Neuroscience, 31, 9641-9648.

Liu L, Vira A, Friedman, Minas J, Bolger DJ, Bitan T & Booth JR (2010). Children with reading disability show brain differences in effective connectivity for visual, but not auditory, word comprehension. PLOS One, 5, e13492.

Bitan T, Lifshitz A, Breznitz & Booth JR (2010). Bidirectional connectivity between hemispheres occurs at multiple levels in language processing, but depends on sex. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 11576-11585.

Desroches AS, Cone NE, Bolger DJ, Bitan T, Burman DD & Booth JR (2010). Children with reading difficulties show differences in brain regions associated with orthographic processing during spoken language processing. Brain Research, 1356, 73-84.

Cao F, Lee R, Yang Y, Xu G, Li K & Booth JR (2010). Cultural constraints on brain development: Evidence from a developmental study of visual word processing in Mandarin Chinese. Cerebral Cortex, 20, 1223-1233.

Grants

4/12-3/14	Neural development of deductive reasoning. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
08-13	Neural development and disorders of math processing. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
08-13	Neural development of lexical processing. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Courses

CSD 303/ PSYCH 364	Brain and Cognition
CSD 434	Neuropsychology of Learning Disabilities
CSD 551	Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience