ИСТИНА

In both children and adults there is large variability in reading skill, with approximately 5-10% of individuals characterized as having reading disability. These individuals struggle to learn to read despite adequate intelligence and opportunity. Although it is well established that a substantial portion of this variability is attributed to the genetic differences between individuals, specifics of the connections between reading and the genome are not well understood. I will present fMRI, SMRI, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and combinatorial genetic polymorphisms (haplotype analyses) as well as behavioral (phenotypic) data which suggest that variation in the COMT and BDNF genes, including the COMT Val/Met polymorphism at rs4680, (previously associated with variation in higher-order cognition) and multiple SNPs in BDNF (previously associated with learning and memory) are associated with reading and language skills, at the level of both brain and behavior. I will argue that these polymorphisms, known for their broad effects on cognition, may modulate reading skill and related abilities including spelling and oral language. Moreover, recent findings with the analyses of haplotypes in COMT and BDNF suggest that phonological awareness, oral language and some aspects of higher-order cognitive abilities are strongly linked to combinations of genotypic profiles in COMT and BDNF.