Developmental dyslexia was until recently considered to belong solely in the domain of educational psychology. With the advent of better theories on language and reading, and better methods for assessing the structure and function of living human brains and for determining genetic transmission, dyslexia is now poised to become a focal concern of cognitive neuroscience, neurology, and genetic research. Still unresolved are questions relating to how much a reading disability represents a normal variation or a separate pathological entity, and whether the cognitive disorder is primarily cognitive, or secondary to a disorder in early perception. Recent findings from neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neuropsychology, and genetics research are reviewed. (This review is an updated version of a review first published in Current Opinion In Neurology and Neurosurgery 1992, 5:71-76.)