The Behavioral and Neurobiological Relationships between Executive Function and Reading: A Review of Current and Preliminary Findings

Despite decades of prior research, the mechanisms of skilled reading development remain elusive. Numerous studies have identified word recognition and oral language ability as key components to explain later reading comprehension performance. However, these components alone do not fully explain differences in reading achievement. There is ongoing work exploring other cognitive processes important for reading, such as the set of skills encompassed in the domain-general concept of executive function (EF). Here, we summarize our work on the behavioral and neurobiological connections between EF and reading and present preliminary neuroimaging findings from ongoing work. Together, these studies suggest (1) that EF plays a supportive and perhaps indirect role in reading achievement and (2) that EF-related brain regions interface with the reading and language networks. While further work is needed to dissect the specifics of how EF interacts with reading, these studies begin to reveal the complex role that EF plays in reading development. Many students struggle when learning to read. Our understanding of how and why reading development goes amiss is incomplete. In this paper, we recap past and present findings about how an important cognitive skill, executive function (EF), is related to reading achievement. We outline brain and behavioral findings and discuss how EF shapes typical and atypical reading development.