Jamie Mitchell

All Publications

• The balance between stability and plasticity of the visual word form area in dyslexia. Nature communications Mitchell, J. L., Yablonski, M., Stone, H. L., Jimenez, M., Takada, M. E., Tang, K. A., Tran, J. E., Chou, C., Yeatman, J. D. 2025

  Abstract

  Understanding the balance between plastic and persistent traits in the dyslexic brain is critical for developing effective interventions. This longitudinal intervention study examines the Visual Word Form Area in dyslexic and typical readers, exploring how this key component of the brain's reading circuitry changes with learning. We find that children with dyslexia show significant differences in Visual Word Form Area presence, size, and tuning properties compared to typical readers. While reading intervention improves reading skills and increases Visual Word Form Area size, disparities persist a year later, suggesting that Visual Word Form Area abnormalities are enduring traits of dyslexia. Our results reveal long-term neural and behavioral changes, while also elucidating stable differences in the functional architecture of the dyslexic brain. This work provides comprehensive insights into the potential and limitations of short-term learning-induced plasticity in human visual cortex.

  View details for DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-67054-3

  View details for PubMedID 41372176

• Visual Word Form Area demonstrates individual and task-agnostic consistency but inter-individual variability. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology Mitchell, J. L., Fuentes-Jimenez, M., Stone, H. L., Yablonski, M., Yeatman, J. D. 2025

  Abstract

  Ventral Occipital Temporal Cortex (VOTC) is home to a mosaic of categorically-selective functional regions that respond to visual stimuli. Within left VOTC lies the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) - a text-selective region that develops as an individual learns to read. While there is consistency in the general location of text-selective responses - within the posterior portion of the occipitotemporal sulcus (OTS) - there is also substantial variability across individuals in the size and precise anatomical location. Moreover, there is an ongoing debate over the extent to which the VWFA a) encodes the visual features of text, versus b) is driven by the task of reading. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we scanned adults and children as they completed two tasks while viewing text, pseudo fonts, faces, objects, limbs. Experimental tasks were: (1) a fixation task where they were instructed to ignore the stimuli while making psychophysical judgements on the fixation dot; (2) a one-back task where they were instructed to attend to the stimuli and detect repeats. We found that a consistent VWFA location could be identified on each individual's cortical surface using either task. At the same time, the response to text during the one-back task evoked a larger territory of text-selective response (leading to a larger ROI) than the fixation task. However, when averaged in template space, text-selective cortex could not be identified due to variability in the relative locations of text-, face-, object-, and limb-selective cortex. Thus, for both children and adults, a text-selective region (i.e., VWFA) can be localized on the individual cortical surface. This resulting region consistently responds to text irrespective of cognitive task, but text-selective responses are masked when averaged in template space due to variability in the exact configuration of category-selective regions.

  View details for DOI 10.1101/2025.07.23.666206

  View details for PubMedID 40777417

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC12330508

• Anatomically distinct regions in the inferior frontal cortex are modulated by task and reading skill. The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience Stone, H. L., Mitchell, J. L., Fuentes-Jimenez, M., Tran, J. E., Yeatman, J. D., Yablonski, M. 2025

  Abstract

  Inferior frontal cortex (IFC) is a critical region for reading and language. This part of the cortex is highly heterogeneous in its structural and functional organization and shows high variability across individuals. Despite decades of research, the relationship between specific IFC regions and reading skill remains unclear. To shed light on the function of IFC in reading, we aim to (1) characterize the functional landscape of text-selective responses in IFC, while accounting for interindividual variability; and (2) examine how text-selective regions in the IFC relate to reading proficiency. To this end, children with a wide range of reading ability (N=66; age 7-14 years, 34 female, 32 male) completed functional MRI scans while performing two tasks on text and non-text visual stimuli. Importantly, both tasks do not explicitly require reading, and can be performed on all visual stimuli. This design allows us to tease apart stimulus-driven responses from task-driven responses and examine where in IFC task and stimulus interact. We were able to identify three anatomically-distinct, text-selective clusters of activation in IFC, in the inferior frontal sulcus (IFS), and dorsal and ventral precentral gyrus (PrG). ​​These three regions showed a strong task effect that was highly specific to text. Furthermore, text-selectivity in the IFS and dorsal PrG was associated with reading proficiency, such that better readers showed higher selectivity to text. These findings suggest that text-selective regions in the IFC are sensitive to both stimulus and task, and highlight the importance of this region for proficient reading.Significance statement The inferior frontal cortex (IFC) is a critical region for language processing, yet despite decades of research, its relationship with reading skill remains unclear. In a group of children with a wide range of reading skills, we were able to identify three anatomically distinct text-selective clusters of activation in the IFC. ​​These regions showed a strong task effect that was highly selective to text. Text-selectivity was positively correlated with reading proficiency, such that better readers showed higher selectivity to text, even in tasks that did not require reading. These findings suggest that multiple text-selective regions within IFC are sensitive to both stimulus and task, and highlight the critical role of IFC for reading proficiency.

  View details for DOI 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1767-24.2025

  View details for PubMedID 40127940

• Small or absent Visual Word Form Area is a trait of dyslexia. bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology Mitchell, J. L., Yablonski, M., Stone, H. L., Fuentes-Jimenez, M., Takada, M. E., Tang, K. A., Tran, J. E., Chou, C., Yeatman, J. D. 2025

  Abstract

  Understanding the balance between plastic and persistent traits in the dyslexic brain is critical for developing effective interventions. This longitudinal intervention study examines the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) in dyslexic and typical readers, exploring how this key component of the brain's reading circuitry changes with learning. We found that dyslexic readers show significant differences in VWFA presence, size, and tuning properties compared to typical readers. While reading intervention improved reading skills and increased VWFA size, disparities persisted, suggesting that VWFA abnormalities are an enduring trait of dyslexia. Notably, we found that even with sufficient intervention to close the reading skill gap, dyslexic readers are still expected to have smaller VWFAs. Our results reveal intervention-driven long-term neural and behavioral changes, while also elucidating stable differences in the functional architecture of the dyslexic brain. This provides new insights into the potential and limitations of learning-induced plasticity in the human visual cortex.

  View details for DOI 10.1101/2025.01.14.632854

  View details for PubMedID 39868322

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC11761755

• Development and validation of a rapid and precise online sentence reading efficiency assessment FRONTIERS IN EDUCATION Yeatman, J. D., Tran, J. E., Burkhardt, A. K., Ma, W., Mitchell, J. L., Yablonski, M., Gijbels, L., Townley-Flores, C., Richie-Halford, A. 2024; 9

  View details for DOI 10.3389/feduc.2024.1494431

  View details for Web of Science ID 001383682800001

• Prevailing Theories of Reading Development and Deafness The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies in Literacy Connor, C., Greenberg, J. edited by Easterbrooks, S. R., Dostal, H. M. Oxford University Press. 2020

  View details for DOI 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197508268.013.5