Near-Infrared Hemoencephalography for Monitoring Blood Oxygenation in Prefrontal Cortical Areas in Diagnosis and Therapy of Developmental Dyslexia

The purpose of this study was to check empirically the relevance of the near-infrared hemoencephalography (NIR-HEG), which assesses local brain blood oxygenation, in facilitation of the diagnosis and behavioral therapy in dyslexics. The study was carried out in children and teenagers with physiologically recognized dyslexia, of three increasing age-groups: 6–7, 9–10, and 19–20 years old. Healthy age- and gender-matched subjects were used as controls. Left and right prefrontal cortical areas were targeted for the NIR-HEG measurements that were taken at baseline in both controls and dyslexics and then after a 10-day course of midriff breathing exercise combined with a standard vocal and writi…