Advanced paternal age effect on offspring's reading ability: The mediating role of thalamic maturation

While advanced paternal age (APA) has repeatedly been associated with a higher risk for neuropsychiatric disorders, its effects on cognitive processes such as reading have received minimal attention. Therefore, we examined the relationship between APA, offspring9s reading abilities, and brain measures in a longitudinal neuroimaging study following 51 children from kindergarten through third grade. APA significantly predicted reduced reading performance, independent of parental reading history, socioeconomic status, home literacy environment, and birth order. This effect was mediated by gray matter volume change in the left posterior thalamus, predominantly the pulvinar nuclei. Complementary analyses using diffusion imaging data, Neurosynth, and 1000 Functional Connectome data indicated the APA-related cluster links to the dorsal attention network. These findings provide novel insights into the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying APA effect on reading during its earliest phase of reading acquisition and suggest future avenues of research on APA-related factors, such as de novo mutation, in reading.