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Quantifying the involvement of subcortical structures in reading using intracranial electroencephalography

Poster Session E - Monday, March 31, 2025, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Addison Cavender¹ (addison.c.cavender@vanderbilt.edu), Ghassan S. Makhoul¹, Derek J. Doss¹, Emily Liao², Bruno Hidalgo Monroy Lerma¹, Anas Reda¹, Graham Johnson³, Christos Constantinidis¹, Shawniqua Williams Roberson², Shilpa B. Reddy⁴, Robert P. Naftel⁴, Sarah K. Bick^1,2, Victoria L. Morgan^1,2, Laurie E. Cutting*¹, Dario J. Englot*^1,2; ¹Vanderbilt University, ²Vanderbilt University Medical Center, ³Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, ⁴Vanderbilt Children's Hospital

Reading ability is a strong predictor of mental health outcomes and later academic achievement and is closely related to socioeconomic status. Previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research has demonstrated that neural processes of reading engage a left-lateralized cortical network of regions including ventral occipito-temporal, temporo-parietal, and inferior frontal language areas. However, these well-studied brain areas are all cortical. Despite recurring evidence of subcortical activation during fMRI reading tasks, few studies specifically investigate the role of subcortical structures in reading. Lesion studies show evidence that damage to one subcortical structure, the thalamus, often disrupts language abilities. Although the thalamus is considered to play an important role in language processing, its role in reading remains unclear. Intracranial EEG (iEEG) recordings from patients undergoing surgical treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy provide an unparalleled view into the spatiotemporal dynamics of cognitive processing and allow researchers to directly measure and probe specific regions in question. While fMRI is an indirect measure of neural activity, iEEG directly measures neural activity with high temporal resolution. Our medical center has recently begun to implant electrodes within the thalamus in these patients, allowing for direct investigation of thalamic activity during presentation of cognitive tasks. Thus, our study aims to investigate high-frequency broadband gamma activation (70-150 Hz) of the thalamus during administration of a passage-reading task to patients undergoing intracranial recording. This study will provide critical insight into thalamic involvement in neural reading processes and may encourage further examination of the influence of subcortical structures in the neural reading network.

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