James Booth Named to Dolle Professorship

EVANSTON, Ill. --- James Booth has been named the JoAnn G. and Peter F. Dolle Associate Professor of Learning Disabilities in the Roxelyn and Richard Pepper Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the Northwestern University School of Communication.

Booth's research examines brain activation in typical children and in children with dyslexia when engaged in language and reading tasks as well as brain activation in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during executive functioning tasks.

His research has provided fundamental knowledge about brain differences between those with and without disorders. In his studies he has shown that individuals labeled with a disability do not comprise a homogeneous group even though most research has treated them as such.

Currently Booth is examining whether or not unique neural “signatures” exist in children with well-defined subtypes of reading disorders or ADHD. He is also using longitudinal studies to examine whether these subtypes have different developmental trajectories in that those with certain deficits may fall further and further behind over time.

Booth, recognized for his innovative application of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) technology to the study of learning and learning disabilities, has earned him research grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.

He has been published in several professional journals including Psychological Review, Human Brain Mapping, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience and Journal of Neuroscience. Prior to joining the Northwestern faculty in 1998, Booth was a research fellow at Carnegie Mellon University.

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