{"id":35555,"date":"2026-02-08T21:24:03","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T15:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=35555"},"modified":"2026-02-08T21:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T15:39:07","slug":"university-of-houston-study-challenges-single-gene-theory-of-dyslexia-points-to-broader-brain-network-vulnerability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/university-of-houston-study-challenges-single-gene-theory-of-dyslexia-points-to-broader-brain-network-vulnerability\/","title":{"rendered":"University of Houston study challenges single-gene theory of dyslexia, points to broader brain network vulnerability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"57433a\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"525\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-35556 not-transparent\" style=\"--dominant-color: #57433a; width:832px;height:auto\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom.webp 700w, https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom-675x506.webp 675w, https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom-150x113.webp 150w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HOUSTON, Feb 8 \u2013 <\/strong>A University of Houston psychology professor is challenging long-held assumptions about dyslexia, arguing the condition stems not from a single faulty gene but from vulnerabilities across broader brain networks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elena Grigorenko, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Psychology, reviewed four decades of genetic research into specific reading disorder, commonly known as dyslexia. Her team catalogued 175 candidate genes linked to reading difficulties and published the findings in the <em>Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOur findings challenge the notion of reading-specific genes, suggesting instead that dyslexia reflects disruption of ancient evolutionary neural mechanisms within human brain architecture,\u201d Grigorenko said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study suggests dyslexia, which affects up to 20% of the global population, may arise from two developmental pathways: one involving early fetal brain wiring and another tied to later synaptic signaling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pavel Dobrynin, first author and research scholar in Grigorenko\u2019s GENESIS lab, said the genes associated with reading are evolutionarily ancient but show unique human activation patterns. \u201cThe genes themselves are ancient, but how and when they\u2019re switched on may be uniquely human,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The findings raise questions about whether dyslexia should be viewed as a distinct neurodevelopmental disorder or part of a broader spectrum of brain development processes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HOUSTON, Feb 8 \u2013 A University of Houston psychology professor is challenging long-held assumptions about dyslexia, arguing the condition stems not from a single faulty gene but from vulnerabilities across broader brain networks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom.webp",700,525,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom-200x200.webp",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom-675x506.webp",675,506,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom.webp",700,525,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom.webp",700,525,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom.webp",700,525,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom.webp",700,525,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom.webp",700,525,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom.webp",700,525,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom-600x525.webp",600,525,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom-600x525.webp",600,525,true],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom-700x490.webp",700,490,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom-550x360.webp",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom-95x65.webp",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom-640x525.webp",640,525,true],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom-96x96.webp",96,96,true],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/grigorenko-newsroom-150x113.webp",150,113,true]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/category\/health\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Health<\/a>","tag_info":"Health","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35555"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35557,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35555\/revisions\/35557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}