Reading skills and developmental dyslexia, characterized by difficulties in developing reading skills, have been associated with brain anomalies within the language network. Genetic factors contribute to developmental dyslexia risk, but the mechanisms by which these genes influence reading skills remain unclear. In this preregistered study (https://osf.io/7sehx), we explored if developmental dyslexia susceptibility genes DNAAF4, DCDC2, NRSN1, and KIAA0319 are associated with brain function in fluently reading adolescents and young adults. Functional MRI and task performance data were collected during tasks involving written and spoken sentence processing, and DNA sequence variants of developmental dyslexia susceptibility genes previously associated with brain structure anomalies were genotyped. The results revealed that variation in DNAAF4, DCDC2, and NRSN1 is associated with brain activity in key language regions: the left inferior frontal gyrus, middle temporal gyrus, and intraparietal sulcus. Furthermore, NRSN1 was associated with task performance, but KIAA0319 did not yield any significant associations. Our findings suggest that individuals with a genetic predisposition to developmental dyslexia may partly employ compensatory neural and behavioral mechanisms to maintain typical task performance. Our study highlights the relevance of these developmental dyslexia susceptibility genes in language-related brain function, even in individuals without developmental dyslexia, providing valuable insights into the genetic factors influencing language processing.

中文翻译：

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发育性阅读障碍易感基因 DNAAF4、DCDC2 和 NRSN1 与流利阅读的青少年和年轻人的大脑功能相关

阅读技能和发展性阅读障碍（以阅读技能发展困难为特征）与语言网络内的大脑异常有关。遗传因素会导致发育性阅读障碍风险，但这些基因影响阅读技能的机制仍不清楚。在这项预先注册的研究 (https://osf.io/7sehx) 中，我们探讨了发育性阅读障碍易感基因 DNAAF4、DCDC2、NRSN1 和 KIAA0319 是否与流利阅读的青少年和年轻人的大脑功能相关。在涉及书面和口头句子处理的任务中收集功能性 MRI 和任务表现数据，并对先前与大脑结构异常相关的发育性阅读障碍易感基因的 DNA 序列变异进行了基因分型。结果显示，DNAAF4、DCDC2 和 NRSN1 的变异与关键语言区域的大脑活动相关：左额下回、颞中回和顶内沟。此外，NRSN1 与任务表现相关，但 KIAA0319 没有产生任何显着的关联。我们的研究结果表明，具有发育性阅读障碍遗传倾向的个体可能部分采用补偿性神经和行为机制来维持典型的任务表现。我们的研究强调了这些发育性阅读障碍易感基因与语言相关的大脑功能的相关性，即使在没有发育性阅读障碍的个体中也是如此，为影响语言处理的遗传因素提供了有价值的见解。