Grey Matter Volume Changes in Adults with Dyslexia Following Combined Reading Intervention and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a persistent learning disorder associated with structural differences in left hemisphere reading networks. Adults with DD often show little improvement after traditional reading interventions. This study examined whether combined accelerated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and reading intervention could induce grey matter volume (GMV) changes in adults with DD. Eleven adults completed a single-subject design including a pre-treatment MRI, 6-week intervention, and post-treatment MRI. Structural MRI data were processed using FreeSurfer’s longitudinal pipeline to compute symmetrized percent change (SPC) in GMV across the reading network. Results showed heterogeneous but meaningful structural changes, with increases observed in the left-hemisphere reading network, particularly the occipito-temporal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and supramarginal gyrus. These findings suggest that combined rTMS and reading intervention can induce structural plasticity in adults with DD.