Prominent neuroscientist Kenneth R. Pugh to keynote annual Ruth Harris Lecture at VCU

By Leila Ugincius

Cognitive neuroscientist and experimental psychologist Kenneth R. Pugh, Ph.D., will present the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Education’s sixth annual Ruth Harris Lecture in Dyslexia Studies.

 Pugh, the president, director of research and a senior scientist at Haskins Laboratories, will present “The Literate Brain: Insights from Neuroimaging.”

The free lecture takes place Thursday, Oct. 22, from 4:30 to 6 p.m. in The Depot, 814 W. Broad St.

In his address, Pugh will present new research from his lab on the neural bases of learning to read across multiple writing systems (both alphabetic and non-alphabetic). He will also focus on atypical language and literacy development and ongoing studies indicating that children with reading disabilities fail to develop a coherent left hemisphere reading circuitry, which supports fluent word reading in typically developing readers. Finally, Pugh will also present ongoing research on how intensive reading remediation impacts brain systems for language and literacy.

Best known for his work on the neural, behavioral and cognitive underpinnings of reading and other cognitive activities, Pugh is a professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences at University of Connecticut, an associate professor in the Department of Linguistics at Yale University and the director of the Yale Reading Center.  

The sponsor for the lecture is the Ruth Harris Professorship in Dyslexia Studies, a fund created from a gift made by Ruth and Louis Harris to the VCU School of Education in 2007. The fund seeks to enhance the work in the field of language learning and reading disabilities, with a focus on dyslexia.

To register for this free event, which is open to the public, contact Coronda Lee at rsvpsoe@vcu.edu or call 804-827-2655.