Dear Hoover,
Please could you post the following message,
Thank you.
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A PhD STUDENTSHIP IS OFFERED AT NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY:
`Dynamic visual dysfunction and in developmental dyslexia'
PROJECT SUPERVISOR:
Dr Piers Cornelissen
Department of Psychology
Telephone: (0191) 222 6250
e-mail: p.l.cornelissen@ncl.ac.uk
BACKGROUND:
Between 5-10% of people fail to learnt to read fluently despite
adequate intelligence and opportunity: they are dyslexic. Since
reading requires rapid association of visual with linguistic
information, it is plausible that problems with either visual or
language processing could cause dyslexics' reading difficulties.
As far as language processing is concerned, it is known that
dyslexics' poor reading is often caused by `phonological' problems.
"Fuzzy" or "underspecified" phonological representations cause
difficulties when dyslexics try to map letters onto sounds.
Consequently, dyslexic people are extremely slow and inaccurate
readers.
Recent research has shown that many dyslexic individuals also have
specific and subtle visual problems. They find it unusually difficult
to detect flickering or moving visual stimuli. This phenomenon has
been replicated in a variety of ways and is thought to be due to an
impairment of the `magnocellular' visual stream in dyslexics' brains.
Most important of all, it raises a clinically important question: does
abnormal visual processing, independent of phonological problems,
affect some dyslexics' reading?
INVESTIGATION:
The aim of the PhD studentship is to investigate the role of the
magnocellular visual stream in reading. We predict that when some
children read, impaired magnocellular function leads to uncertainty
about where letters and letter features are positioned with respect to
each other, and that this leads to predictable reading errors. The
approach to be used will be twofold: First, functional brain imaging
(magnetoencephalography or MEG) will be used to search for objective
neurophysiological evidence of `magnocellular' impairment in dyslexic
people. Secondly, psychophysical experiments will be carried out to a)
investigate the relationship between position encoding and
magnocellular function, and b) elucidate exactly what features are
encoded by the visual system when letters and text are processed. With
this information, we aim to design methods of text presentation which
will counteract the effects of impaired magnocellular function and
provide a specific form of remediation for those children with
visually based reading disabilities.
Candidates should have, or be expected to achieve, a first or an upper
second degree in the biological or physical sciences. Further details
may be obtained from Dr Piers Cornelissen (see above)