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Open Imaging Index
MRI Brain

Morphological Awareness and Dyslexia (ds006636)

Morphological Awareness in Readers With and Without Dyslexia

Structural brain MRI and task fMRI of readers with and without dyslexia, collected to study how the brain processes word roots and affixes in spoken and written words. 204 participants, one session each, in BIDS under CC0.

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Overview

This OpenNeuro dataset comes from a study of morphological awareness, the ability to recognise and use the meaningful parts of words such as roots and affixes, in readers with and without dyslexia. Researchers at MIT scanned each participant once while they judged spoken and written words in two morphology tasks. The first snapshot appeared in September 2025; the current snapshot 1.4.0 (August 2026) added further participants and is released under a CC0 waiver. The study was funded by the NICHD (R01HD106122 and F32HD100967).

Composition

The release contains 204 participants with one session each. All have a T1-weighted structural scan. 203 have task fMRI: 182 completed both the auditory and the visual morphology task, 11 only the auditory task and 10 only the visual task. One participant has a structural scan only. Each functional run has a matching reverse phase-encoded EPI field map. The participants file lists only identifiers, so the release does not state which participants have dyslexia, nor their age or sex.

Acquisition

All images were acquired at MIT and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research on Siemens Prisma and Prisma Fit 3T scanners. The structural scan is a 3D multi-echo MPRAGE with volumetric navigators for prospective motion correction (TR 2.53 s, 1 mm slices). Functional runs use multiband echo-planar imaging (TR 2 s, multiband factor 2, 2.4 mm slices) acquired posterior to anterior. Structural images were defaced.

Annotations

There are no image annotations. Only 7 of the 385 functional runs come with a raw events file. The derivatives folder holds fMRIPrep 25.1.4 outputs for part of the cohort and FitLins 0.11.0 first-level statistical maps comparing root, affix and control trials for each task.

Known limitations

  • No diagnostic group, age, sex or reading scores are shared, so the dyslexia and control groups cannot be separated from the release alone.
  • No paper describing the cohort is linked from the dataset.
  • Not every participant completed both tasks, and most functional runs lack a raw events file.
  • Three structural images are not labelled as defaced.

Cohort

Aggregate numbers from the sources below. Bars are relative to the 204 subjects.

Contrast / sequence

Groups can overlap

  • T1-weighted 204 100%
  • BOLD fMRI 203 100%

sub-*/ses-T1/anat/*_T1w.nii.gz, sub-*/ses-T1/func/*_bold.nii.gz in File tree and T1w JSON sidecars of ds006636 snapshot 1.4.0 (CC0), raw NIfTI files counted per subject folder, sidecar fields Manufacturer, ManufacturersModelName, MagneticFieldStrength and InstitutionName

Contrast / sequence by country

Scans

Reported cross table. A dot marks a cell the source does not give.

United States
T1-weighted204

T1w sidecars: InstitutionName in File tree and T1w JSON sidecars of ds006636 snapshot 1.4.0 (CC0), raw NIfTI files counted per subject folder, sidecar fields Manufacturer, ManufacturersModelName, MagneticFieldStrength and InstitutionName

Contrast / sequence by scanner vendor

Scans

Reported cross table. A dot marks a cell the source does not give.

Siemens Healthineers
T1-weighted204

T1w sidecars: Manufacturer in File tree and T1w JSON sidecars of ds006636 snapshot 1.4.0 (CC0), raw NIfTI files counted per subject folder, sidecar fields Manufacturer, ManufacturersModelName, MagneticFieldStrength and InstitutionName

Contrast / sequence by field strength

Scans

Reported cross table. A dot marks a cell the source does not give.

3 T
T1-weighted204

T1w sidecars: MagneticFieldStrength in File tree and T1w JSON sidecars of ds006636 snapshot 1.4.0 (CC0), raw NIfTI files counted per subject folder, sidecar fields Manufacturer, ManufacturersModelName, MagneticFieldStrength and InstitutionName

Contrast combinations

How many subjects have exactly each set of contrasts.

T1wboldSubjects with exactly this set
203
1

anat and func folders in File tree and T1w JSON sidecars of ds006636 snapshot 1.4.0 (CC0), raw NIfTI files counted per subject folder, sidecar fields Manufacturer, ManufacturersModelName, MagneticFieldStrength and InstitutionName

License and access

Our reading of the license, not legal advice. Before you use the data, read the original license and confirm that your use is allowed. We take no responsibility for how you use a dataset. Full disclaimer

Access
Open download

Download without an account

Access page

Creative Commons Zero 1.0 Universal

Public domain dedication. Do anything with the data, including commercial use, without asking and without having to give credit.

dataset_description.json of snapshot 1.4.0 states "License" CC0.

Original license text Version read: 1.0 Checked 2026-10-07

What you can do

  • Yes
  • Yes
  • Yes
  • Yes
  • Yes

What you can share

  • Yes
  • Yes
  • Yes

What you must do

  • No
  • Share alike No
  • No
  • No
  • Manuscript review No
  • Release code No
  • Return results No
  • Delete after use No

Limits

  • No
  • Location limits No

Citation

Marks R, Dickinson E, Kaminsky A, Christodoulou J, Gabrieli J. Morphological Awareness in Readers With and Without Dyslexia. OpenNeuro, version 1.4.0 (2026). doi:10.18112/openneuro.ds006636.v1.4.0

Sources

Every number on this page comes from one of these documents. Each chart names the table or page it is taken from. The raw numbers are in stats.csv.