The current study examined the widely held, but un-tested, assumption that morphological decomposition can compensate for missing phonological information in reading opaque orthographies. In addition, we tested whether morphological decomposition can compensate for the phonological decoding deficits in readers with dyslexia. Hebrew provides a unique opportunity to test these questions as it has a rich Semitic morphology, and two versions of script: a transparent orthography (with diacritic marks, ‘pointed’) and an opaque orthography (without diacritic marks, ‘un-pointed’). In two experiments, one behavioral and one fMRI, skilled and dyslexic readers read aloud Hebrew nouns: half bi-morphemic (root + pattern) and half mono-morphemic (non-decomposable). Each word was presented both in the transparent orthography (pointed), and in the opaque orthography (un-pointed). While skilled readers were faster, and showed no effects of diacritics or morphology, dyslexic readers read pointed words more slowly than un-pointed words and bi-morphemic words faster than mono-morphemic words. The imaging results showed: 1) In both groups a morphological effect was found in un-pointed words, in left inferior and middle frontal gyri, associated with morpho-phonological decomposition. 2) Only readers with dyslexia showed a morphological effect in pointed words in the left occipito-temporal cortex, associated with orthographic processing. 3) Dyslexic readers also showed a positive association between morphological awareness and activation in the left occipito-temporal cortex during reading of all words, and activation in inferior frontal cortex during reading of un-pointed bi-morphemic words. Altogether, these findings suggest that in both typical and dyslexic readers morphological decomposition can compensate for the missing phonological information in an opaque orthography. The results also show that readers with dyslexia can rely on morphological decomposition to compensate for their deficits in phonological decoding. Finally, these results highlight the way in which unique language specific properties shape the neural mechanisms underlying typical and atypical reading.

当前的研究检查了广泛持有但未经检验的假设，即形态分解可以补偿阅读不透明拼字法时丢失的语音信息。此外，我们测试了形态分解是否可以弥补阅读困难的读者的语音解码缺陷。希伯来语提供了一个独特的机会来测试这些问题，因为它具有丰富的Semitic形态和两种版本的脚本：透明拼字法（带变音符号，“指向”）和不透明拼字法（无变音符号，“指向”） 。在两个实验中，一个有行为能力的人和一个功能磁共振成像的人，熟练的和阅读困难的读者大声朗读希伯来语名词：一半是双语素（根+模式），一半是单语素（不可分解）。每个字都以透明拼字法（指出）呈现，以及不透明的正字法（未指定）。虽然熟练的读者速度更快，并且没有变音符号或词法的影响，但阅读困难的读者比有针对性的单词阅读速度更慢，而有针对性的单词阅读者则比单语态的单词阅读速度更快。成像结果显示：1）两组均在左下和中额回中未指出的单词中发现了形态学效应，并伴随着形态语音分解。2）只有阅读障碍的读者才能在左枕颞颞皮层的有针对性的单词中表现出形态学效应，这与拼写处理有关。3）阅读障碍的读者在阅读所有单词的过程中还显示出形态意识与左枕颞皮层激活之间的正相关关系，阅读未指出的双语素单词时下额叶皮层的激活和激活。总而言之，这些发现表明，在典型阅读者和阅读障碍者中，形态分解都可以弥补不透明拼字法中缺失的语音信息。结果还表明，阅读障碍的读者可以依靠形态分解来弥补语音解码中的缺陷。最后，这些结果突出了独特的语言特有属性塑造典型和非典型阅读背后的神经机制的方式。结果还表明阅读障碍的读者可以依靠形态分解来弥补语音解码中的缺陷。最后，这些结果突出了独特的语言特有属性塑造典型和非典型阅读背后的神经机制的方式。结果还表明阅读障碍的读者可以依靠形态分解来弥补语音解码中的缺陷。最后，这些结果突出了独特的语言特有属性塑造典型和非典型阅读背后的神经机制的方式。