Edinburgh/Lancaster Universities - A story of two halves

Some children with dyslexia suffer from a lack of communication between the two halves of their brains, according to researchers at the universities of Edinburgh and Lancaster. Psychologists from the institutions have developed the first-ever computer model of the two hemispheres, which mimics the brain of a child learning to read. Padraic Monaghan, professor of cognition in the department of psychology at Lancaster, said: "The model, which we programmed with an impaired link in the brain, learnt to read more slowly. When it read words such as 'pint', it had particular difficulties because these are irregularly pronounced compared with words of a similar spelling." Some people with dyslexia have particular problems with such words, he said.