Enlarge / Things tend to be a bit out of focus for my kids. (credit: Baruk Feddabonn)
I have to admit that my only experience of dyslexia is via family members. My youngest daughter has just started high school, and she’s struggling with all the reading associated with three languages, an issue that bleeds over into all the other subjects. In testing, she scores high on reading comprehension but really low on reading speed. My oldest son reads and reads and reads… but cannot write worth a damn. Both have trouble internalizing spelling rules and multiplication tables.
These all standard symptoms of dyslexia. Dyslexia is a spectrum disorder, one that covers many aspects of reading and writing, so when people start touting single causes, my skepticism goes into overdrive. But it turns out that new research on its causes is reasonably solid, and it raises some interesting questions.
Your brain in the mirror
When the brain creates an image, it’s faced with a problem. The two eyes report two images that are extremely similar, but shifted with respect to each other. The displacement is awesome, because it provides us with better depth perception. However, in the absence of a large amount of alcohol, the brain still has to decide on a single coherent image so it has something to present to our consciousness. To do that, the two images are melded into one, which is fine for displacement. But for mirror images, the brain must choose a single image.
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