Scientists discover the key cause of dyslexia - reveal why parents CAN pass it children
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Scientists have revealed the key causes of dyslexia — and how it may shrink parts of the brain. The learning difficulty, which causes sufferers to frequently spell and read words wrong, is known to run in families. But scientists in the Netherlands have now pinpointed the exact DNA mutations that could be to blame for the problem — as well as the specific impact on the structure of the brain.
Dyslexia is partly influenced by genes and can be inherited, explained study author and neurogenetics researcher Sourena Soheili-Nezhad. 'Yet, dyslexia is a complex trait, which cannot be explained by changes in a single brain region or a single gene,' he added.
'Studying exactly which genes affect which brain networks can help to understand how cognitive functions develop differently in this learning difficulty.'. In the study, published in the journal Science Advances, researchers used data from more than a million people collected by 23andMe, a company that sells at-home DNA testing kits.
This data revealed the genetic variants that increase the chance of a person having dyslexia — which affects some one in 10 Brits. It's estimated that up to one in every 10 people in the UK has some degree of dyslexia, according to the NHS. Researchers then used information extracted from the UK Biobank — a collection of health data from 30,000 people, including medical imaging and DNA mutations — to look for similarities in the brain scans of people with the previously identified genetic variant.
