Inducing Dyslexia in Vision Language Models

Melika Honarmand, Ayati Sharma, Badr AlKhamissi, Johannes Mehrer, Martin Schrimpf · Sep 29, 2025 · Citations: 0

Abstract

Dyslexia, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent reading difficulties, is often linked to reduced activity of the visual word form area (VWFA) in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex. Traditional approaches to studying dyslexia, such as behavioral and neuroimaging methods, have provided valuable insights but remain limited in their ability to test causal hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms of reading impairments. In this study, we use large-scale vision-language models (VLMs) to simulate dyslexia by functionally identifying and perturbing artificial analogues of word processing. Using stimuli from cognitive neuroscience, we identify visual-word-form-selective units within VLMs and demonstrate that they predict human VWFA neural responses. Ablating model VWF units leads to selective impairments in reading tasks while general visual and language comprehension abilities remain intact. In particular, the resulting model matches dyslexic humans' phonological deficits without a significant change in orthographic processing, and mirrors dyslexic behavior in font sensitivity. Taken together, our modeling results replicate key characteristics of dyslexia and establish a computational framework for investigating brain disorders.

Human Data Lens

Uses human feedback: No
Feedback types: None
Rater population: Unknown
Unit of annotation: Unknown
Expertise required: General

Evaluation Lens

Evaluation modes: Automatic Metrics
Agentic eval: None
Quality controls: Not reported
Confidence: 0.30
Flags: low_signal, possible_false_positive

Research Summary

Contribution Summary

Dyslexia, a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by persistent reading difficulties, is often linked to reduced activity of the visual word form area (VWFA) in the ventral occipito-temporal cortex.
Traditional approaches to studying dyslexia, such as behavioral and neuroimaging methods, have provided valuable insights but remain limited in their ability to test causal hypotheses about the underlying mechanisms of reading impairments.
In this study, we use large-scale vision-language models (VLMs) to simulate dyslexia by functionally identifying and perturbing artificial analogues of word processing.

Why It Matters For Eval

Using stimuli from cognitive neuroscience, we identify visual-word-form-selective units within VLMs and demonstrate that they predict human VWFA neural responses.
In particular, the resulting model matches dyslexic humans' phonological deficits without a significant change in orthographic processing, and mirrors dyslexic behavior in font sensitivity.