Are there sex differences in the brain basis of literacy related skills? Evidence from reading and spelling impairments after early unilateral brain damage

Abstract

Reading and spelling performance was analysed for a sample of 45 children with unilateral brain damage. Boys showed impairments only when the lesion was on the left, while girls showed no significant impairments when either hemisphere was affected. The results support the hypothesis that specialised substrates, which underlie literacy acquisition, have limited plasticity and may be more strongly lateralised to the left hemisphere in males than in females.