How Do We Know Momentum Is Conserved

Deslessia in comosoma 15

confirmed the genetic origin of dyslexia:
on chromosome 15 causes of disease

A group of researchers Scientific Institute "Eugenio Medea - Our Family" Bosisio Parini and the Faculty of Psychology, University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, led by Dr. Cecilia Marino IRCCS Medea, confirmed by studying 121 families Italian children with dyslexia, the genetic origin of the disease.

The discovery is published in the January issue of the prestigious scientific journal, Journal of Medical Genetics .

The study has at least two important implications.

The first is the confirmation of a certain recently suggested by a group of Anglo-Saxon research, which was identified in American children the involvement of chromosome 15 in dyslexia.

The second implication is that this area of \u200b\u200bthe genome is able to influence susceptibility to dyslexia independently of the cultural characteristics of different countries in which a child may be living. Therefore, regardless of the degree of difficulty by the rules of grammar and reading of the language to which a child is exposed, the chromosome region investigated by scholars seems to be one of the 'guilty' of the disorder.

Studies in recent years on dyslexic families and twins largely confirm the genetic predisposition of dyslexia. A concordant result among the various studies is in fact the increased probability of a child who has a parent or close relative with reading problems have trouble learning to turn to read.

Dyslexia is a condition in which children with normal intelligence have difficulty reading and writing of variable severity due to a problematic use of phonemes, that sounds simple, the actual 'bricks' of the constituent words. This condition, which affects about 5% of individuals, is partly determined by genetic and environmental factors in part, as to be transmitted within families. The genetic basis of dyslexia, like other medical conditions such as hypertension or depression, is nevertheless very difficult to study, probably because they contribute more genes to play a causal role and each of them alone is not sufficient to establish the disease.

" This result will be future developments - notes Dr. Marino - research will continue in order to more accurately identify the altered genes on chromosome 15, ie the smallest units of the human genome coding involved in dyslexia. Knowledge of the genetic alterations may help to clarify the mechanisms that determine dyslexia. "

So what are the new perspectives Research in this field? "A major challenge for the foreseeable future - continues Marino- is represented by being able to understand exactly which components of dyslexia are determined by the genes identified. This also means understanding what features of perception and psychological analysis are influenced by variations gene identified by our work, we believe that dyslexia may be the result of some misperceptions of the symbols of their writing, association between these signs and sounds that correspond to them, or a lack of attentional capacity. And perception and association between symbols and sounds are largely influenced by genetic factors. "

The unity of the processes that lead to dyslexia, as demonstrated by the group on the genetic basis of the Scientific Institute Eugenio Medea, in turn, according to some studies of brain functions previously performed at the San Raffaele, in which we showed that adults with dyslexia from different cultures showed the same type of abnormal brain activation during reading of words related to their specific language cultures.

"We know that this is a complex disease, in which genetic and environmental factors contribute to increasing the possibility that it occurs - comments Prof. Marco Battaglia, the Faculty of Psychology, University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan. This confirmation is therefore extremely valuable, especially considering that we are in a field, the genetics of complex diseases, which have a convergence of data between different research laboratories may sometimes be difficult. "

study published in the January issue of the Journal of Medical Genetics, 41: 42-46, 2004

A locus on 15q15-15qter Influences dyslexia: Further support from a transmission / disequilibrium study in an Italian-speaking population.

Journal of Medical Genetics

The co-authors of the study of Marino Robert Jordan, Laura Vanzin, Maria Nobile, Maria Luisa Lorusso, Cinzia Baschirotto, Laura Riva and Massimo Molteni IRCCS "Eugenio Medea" Bosisio Parini (Luke) and Marco Battaglia of the Faculty of Psychology, University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan .