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Examining Brain Connectivity And Reading Ability In Children, Alexandra M. Cross
Examining Brain Connectivity And Reading Ability In Children, Alexandra M. Cross
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
In this thesis, I investigated the relationship between functional and structural connectivity and reading ability in children. Prior research has tended to use single word reading measures or composite measures, however this is problematic as reading is a complex skill relying on multiple subskills, such as decoding efficiency, sight word reading efficiency, reading comprehension, and rapid automatized naming. As a result, the multi-faceted relationship between brain connectivity and reading ability is not well understood. I aimed to address this issue by considering multiple reading subskills while examining the neural substrates of reading. In Chapter 2, I examined how individual differences …
Connectomic Analysis Of Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta And Ventral Tegmental Area Projections To The Striatum And Cortex, Nicholas Handfield-Jones
Connectomic Analysis Of Substantia Nigra Pars Compacta And Ventral Tegmental Area Projections To The Striatum And Cortex, Nicholas Handfield-Jones
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
We investigated the connectivity of dopamine (DA) neurons emerging from the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) and targeting the dorsal striatum (DS), ventral striatum (VS), and prefrontal cortex (PFC). We used diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) probabilistic tractography on human connectome project MRI data. We found that unlike conventional descriptions of DA pathways (i.e., nigrostriatal, mesolimbic, mesocortical), connectivity from both SNc and VTA each targeted DS, VS, and PFC. We also found that from the DS, VS, and PFC, a greater proportion of connections targeted the SNc as compared to the VTA. These findings suggest …