# Tracking neurocognitive changes during evidence-based reading instruction in typically and atypically developing children

> **NIH NIH R37** · UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT STORRS · 2024 · $589,510

## Abstract

Treatment studies to date have shown pre-to-post changes in reading circuits with evidence-based 
remediation of reading disability (RD), establishing a neural signature of successful treatment outcome. 
However, insight into the neurobiological mechanisms by which treatment produces these changes 
requires monitoring modulations of key brain regions throughout the course of treatment. Moreover, in 
any cohort some RD children with highly similar profiles on standardized testing at the beginning of 
intervention will show large gains and others will not. In the previous grant-cycle we employed multimodal 
neuroimaging before, during, and after an in-school reading intervention and identified novel neurocognitive 
pre-treatment factors and dynamic brain/behavior changes that predict individual differences in treatment 
responsiveness. In the new cycle, we maintain the overarching goal of understanding variation in response 
to reading remediation in RD learners with dynamic brain/behavior tracking designed to yield novel insights 
into how remediation modifies brain organization for reading, and why it fails to do so adequately for some 
RD children, but in the proposed continuation, we leverage the discoveries from the initial phase (the how 
and why) to next examine what might constitute a more effective neurocognitive focus for treatment in 
minimal-responders to conventional content. With pre-learning fMRI/MRS and frequent fNIRS/EEG tracking 
and with both short-term adaptive learning experiments and longer-term Educational Technology based 
learning programs we vary emphasis on orthographic, phonological, and component process training as 
we seek to match learning content to individual differences in neurocognitive organization for these 
component processes.
Project Summary/Abstract

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10913397
- **Project number:** 5R37HD090153-08
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT STORRS
- **Principal Investigator:** Kenneth R. Pugh
- **Activity code:** R37 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $589,510
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-06 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10913397

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10913397, Tracking neurocognitive changes during evidence-based reading instruction in typically and atypically developing children (5R37HD090153-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10913397. Licensed CC0.

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