Tracy Centanni
Associate Professor | University of Florida
Gainesville, FL, UNITED STATES
Tracy Centanni studies the neural and genetic correlates of reading acquisition, risk factors for dyslexia, and neural plasticity.
Biography
Tracy Centanni is an associate professor and the director of the Genetics of Auditory and Visual Perception and Plasticity (GAPP) Lab. The lab's research program aims to understand the biological (gene and brain) and environmental (early childhood experiences) influences on reading development, focusing on dyslexia. A second branch of the lab focuses on non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation as a vehicle for improving language and reading abilities in a variety of populations, including understanding the conditions under which this approach is successful and how it changes the brain. Her lab studies are designed to bridge the gap between lab-based research and real-world applications to the populations we study.
Areas of Expertise (6)
Neural Plasticity
Dyslexia
Auditory and Visual Perception
Brain Basis of Reading Acquisition
Genetic Factors for Dyslexia
Non-Invasive Vagus Nerve Stimulation
Media Appearances (2)
Tracy Centanni: Understanding Young Readers' Brains
In conversation with Tiffany and Abdulla online
2023-05-24
In this conversation, Dr. Tracy Centanni explores how children often struggle learning how to read in Arabic, leading the UAE to invest in innovative programs like the Iqra curriculum, supported by the Foundation.
Seeking Strategies to Help Children With Dyslexia
TCU Magazine online
2020-01-05
Watching other kids leave the kindergarten classroom for recess while she worked to decode a single word is a distinct memory for Kate Cordle, a senior studio art major. “I would normally be stopped by my teacher and escorted to a side room to work with her and two other students to try and at least get through the sentence,” she said. “They’d have to whisper what the words were to me so I could speed the process up and go outside.”
Articles (3)
The effect of non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation on memory recall in reading: A pilot study
Behavioural Brain ResearchVishal J. Thakkar, et. al
2023-02-13
Expert reading acquisition is marked by fluent, effortless decoding, and adequate comprehension skills and is required for modern daily life. In spite of its importance, many individuals struggle with reading comprehension even when decoding skills are adequate. Unfortunately, effective reading comprehension interventions are limited, especially for adults.
Categorical perception and influence of attention on neural consistency in response to speech sounds in adults with dyslexia
Annals of DyslexiaTracy Centanni, et. al
2021-09-08
Developmental dyslexia is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that is associated with alterations in the behavioral and neural processing of speech sounds, but the scope and nature of that association is uncertain. It has been proposed that more variable auditory processing could underlie some of the core deficits in this disorder. In the current study, magnetoencephalography (MEG) data were acquired from adults with and without dyslexia while they passively listened to or actively categorized tokens from...
Increased variability of stimulus-driven cortical responses is associated with genetic variability in children with and without dyslexia
Developmental Cognitive NeuroscienceTracy Centanni, et. al
2018-11-01
Individuals with dyslexia exhibit increased brainstem variability in response to sound. It is unknown as to whether increased variability extends to neocortical regions associated with audition and reading, extends to visual stimuli, and whether increased variability characterizes all children with dyslexia or, instead, a specific subset of children. We evaluated the consistency of stimulus-evoked neural responses in children with (N = 20) or without dyslexia (N = 12) as measured by magnetoencephalography (MEG).
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