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Frontiers in Public Health 2022Dyslexia is a disorder characterized by an impaired ability to understand written and printed words or phrases. Epidemiological longitudinal data show that dyslexia is... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis
Dyslexia is a disorder characterized by an impaired ability to understand written and printed words or phrases. Epidemiological longitudinal data show that dyslexia is highly prevalent, affecting 10-20% of the population regardless of gender. This study aims to provide a detailed overview of research status and development characteristics of dyslexia from types of articles, years, countries, institutions, journals, authors, author keywords, and highly cited papers. A total of 9,166 publications have been retrieved from the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E) from 2000 to 2021. The United States of America, United Kingdom, and Germany were the top three most productive countries in terms of the number of publications. China, Israel, and Japan led the Asia research on dyslexia. University of Oxford had the most publications and won first place in terms of h-index. was the most productive journal in this field and Psychology was the most used subject category. Keywords analysis indicated that "developmental dyslexia," "phonological awareness," children and fMRI were still the main research topics. "Literacy," "rapid automatized naming (RAN)," "assessment," "intervention," "meta-analysis," "Chinese," "executive function," "morphological awareness," "decoding," "dyscalculia," "EEG," "Eye tracking," "rhythm," "bilingualism," and "functional connectivity" might become the new research hotspots.
Topics: Asia; Bibliometrics; Child; China; Dyslexia; Humans; United Kingdom; United States
PubMed: 35812514
DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.915053 -
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2021
PubMed: 34955796
DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.811101 -
Progress in Brain Research 2016Storing the solution of simple calculations in long-term memory is an important learning in primary school that is subsequently essential in adult daily living. While... (Review)
Review
Storing the solution of simple calculations in long-term memory is an important learning in primary school that is subsequently essential in adult daily living. While most children succeed in storing arithmetic facts to which they have been trained at school, huge individual differences are reported, particularly in children with developmental dyscalculia, who show a severe and persistent deficit in arithmetic facts learning. This chapter reports important advances in the understanding of the development of an arithmetic facts network and focuses on the detrimental effect of similarity interference. First, at the retrieval stage, connectionist models highlighted that the similarity of the neighbor problems in the arithmetic facts network creates interference. More recently, the similarity interference during the learning stage was pointed out in arithmetic facts learning. The interference parameter, that captures the proactive interference that a problem receives from previously learned problems, was shown as a substantial determinant of the performance across multiplication problems. This proactive interference was found both in children and adults and showed that when a problem is highly similar to previously learned ones, it is more difficult to remember it. Furthermore, the sensitivity to this similarity interference determined individual differences in the learning and retrieving of arithmetic facts, giving new insights for interindividual differences. Regarding the atypical development, hypersensitivity-to-interference in memory was related to arithmetic facts deficit in a single case of developmental dyscalculia and in a group of fourth-grade children with low arithmetic facts knowledge. In sum, the impact of similarity interference is shown in the learning stage of arithmetic facts and concerns the typical and atypical development.
Topics: Dyscalculia; Humans; Learning; Mathematics; Mental Recall; Neuropsychological Tests; Problem Solving
PubMed: 27339011
DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2016.04.008 -
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal... Feb 2017One specific cause of low numeracy is a deficit in a mechanism for representing and processing numerosities that humans inherited and which is putatively shared with... (Review)
Review
One specific cause of low numeracy is a deficit in a mechanism for representing and processing numerosities that humans inherited and which is putatively shared with many other species. This deficit is evident at each of the four levels of explanation in the 'causal modelling' framework of Morton and Frith (Morton and Frith 1995 In , vol. 1 (eds D Cichetti, D Cohen), pp. 357-390). Very low numeracy can occur in cognitively able individuals with normal access to good education: it is linked to an easily measured deficit in basic numerosity processing; it has a distinctive neural signature; and twin studies suggest specific heritability, though the relevant genes have not yet been identified. Unfortunately, educators and policymakers seem largely unaware of this cause, but appropriate interventions could alleviate the suffering and handicap of those with low numeracy, and would be a major benefit to society.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The origins of numerical abilities'.
Topics: Comprehension; Education; Humans; Mathematical Concepts
PubMed: 29292351
DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0118 -
NPJ Science of Learning Jul 2021The development of numerical and arithmetic abilities constitutes a crucial cornerstone in our modern and educated societies. Difficulties to acquire these central... (Review)
Review
The development of numerical and arithmetic abilities constitutes a crucial cornerstone in our modern and educated societies. Difficulties to acquire these central skills can lead to severe consequences for an individual's well-being and nation's economy. In the present review, we describe our current broad understanding of the functional and structural brain organization that supports the development of numbers and arithmetic. The existing evidence points towards a complex interaction among multiple domain-specific (e.g., representation of quantities and number symbols) and domain-general (e.g., working memory, visual-spatial abilities) cognitive processes, as well as a dynamic integration of several brain regions into functional networks that support these processes. These networks are mainly, but not exclusively, located in regions of the frontal and parietal cortex, and the functional and structural dynamics of these networks differ as a function of age and performance level. Distinctive brain activation patterns have also been shown for children with dyscalculia, a specific learning disability in the domain of mathematics. Although our knowledge about the developmental brain dynamics of number and arithmetic has greatly improved over the past years, many questions about the interaction and the causal involvement of the abovementioned functional brain networks remain. This review provides a broad and critical overview of the known developmental processes and what is yet to be discovered.
PubMed: 34301948
DOI: 10.1038/s41539-021-00099-3 -
Children (Basel, Switzerland) May 2024There is still much debate about the exact nature and frequency of developmental dyscalculia, and about how it should be defined. This article examines several key... (Review)
Review
There is still much debate about the exact nature and frequency of developmental dyscalculia, and about how it should be defined. This article examines several key questions in turn: Is developmental dyscalculia a distinct disorder, or should it be seen as the lower end of a continuum-or possibly more than one continuum-of numerical ability? Do individuals with developmental dyscalculia show atypical brain structure or function? Does the study of acquired dyscalculia have anything to teach us about developmental dyscalculia? In studying dyscalculia, should we look less at arithmetical ability as a single entity, and more at separable components of arithmetical ability? How heterogeneous is developmental dyscalculia, and how important is it to study individual profiles? To what extent is developmental dyscalculia influenced by domain-specific versus domain-general abilities? The conclusion is that, though a significant amount has been discovered through existing research, and though this has some important implications for screening and diagnosis of dyscalculia, there is much more research that still needs to be conducted if we are to answer all of these questions fully. In particular, the study of developmental dyscalculia must be more integrated with the study of individual differences in mathematics in the population as a whole.
PubMed: 38929203
DOI: 10.3390/children11060623 -
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2021Dyscalculia is a learning disability affecting the acquisition of arithmetical skills in children with normal intelligence and age-appropriate education. Two hypotheses...
Dyscalculia is a learning disability affecting the acquisition of arithmetical skills in children with normal intelligence and age-appropriate education. Two hypotheses attempt to explain the main cause of dyscalculia. The first hypothesis suggests that a problem with the core mechanisms of perceiving (non-symbolic) quantities is the cause of dyscalculia (core deficit hypothesis), while the alternative hypothesis suggests that dyscalculics have problems only with the processing of numerical symbols (access deficit hypothesis). In the present study, the symbolic and non-symbolic numerosity processing of typically developing children and children with dyscalculia were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Control ( = 15, mean age: 11.26) and dyscalculia ( = 12, mean age: 11.25) groups were determined using a wide-scale screening process. Participants performed a quantity comparison paradigm in the fMRI with two number conditions (dot and symbol comparison) and two difficulty levels (0.5 and 0.7 ratio). The results showed that the bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS), left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and left fusiform gyrus (so-called "number form area") were activated for number perception as well as bilateral occipital and supplementary motor areas. The task difficulty engaged bilateral insular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, IPS, and DLPFC activation. The dyscalculia group showed more activation in the left orbitofrontal cortex, left medial prefrontal cortex, and right anterior cingulate cortex than the control group. The dyscalculia group showed left hippocampus activation specifically for the symbolic condition. Increased left hippocampal and left-lateralized frontal network activation suggest increased executive and memory-based compensation mechanisms during symbolic processing for dyscalculics. Overall, our findings support the access deficit hypothesis as a neural basis for dyscalculia.
PubMed: 34354576
DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.687476 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2022Mathematics is a struggle for many. To make it more accessible, behavioral and educational scientists are redesigning how it is taught. To a similar end, a few rogue... (Review)
Review
Mathematics is a struggle for many. To make it more accessible, behavioral and educational scientists are redesigning how it is taught. To a similar end, a few rogue mathematicians and computer scientists are doing something more radical: they are redesigning mathematics itself, improving its ergonomic features. Charles Peirce, an important contributor to ordinary symbolic logic, also introduced a rigorous but non-symbolic, graphical alternative to it that is easier to picture. In the spirit of this , George Spencer-Brown founded . Performing iconic arithmetic, algebra, and even trigonometry, resembles doing calculations on an abacus, which is still popular in education today, has aided humanity for millennia, helps even when it is merely imagined, and ameliorates severe disability in basic computation. Interestingly, whereas some intellectually disabled individuals excel in very complex numerical tasks, others of normal intelligence fail even in very simple ones. A comparison of their wider psychological profiles suggests that iconic mathematics ought to suit the very people traditional mathematics leaves behind.
PubMed: 35769758
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.890362 -
Scientific Reports Apr 2022When asked to estimate the number of items in the visual field, neurotypical adults are more precise and rapid if the items are clustered into subgroups compared to when...
When asked to estimate the number of items in the visual field, neurotypical adults are more precise and rapid if the items are clustered into subgroups compared to when they are randomly distributed. It has been suggested that this phenomenon, termed "groupitizing", relies on the recruitment of arithmetical calculation strategies and subitizing. Here the role of arithmetical skills in groupitizing was investigated by measuring the groupitizing effect (or advantage) in a sample of children and adolescents with and without math learning disability (dyscalculia). The results showed that when items were grouped, both groups of participants showed a similar advantage on sensory precision and response time in numerosity estimates. Correlational analyses confirmed a lack of covariation between groupitizing advantage and math scores. Bayesian statistics on sensory precision sustained the frequentist analyses providing decisive evidence in favor of no groups difference on groupitizing advantage magnitude (LBF = - 0.44) and no correlation with math scores (LBF = - 0.57). The results on response times, although less decisive, were again in favor of the null hypothesis. Overall, the results suggest that the link between groupitizing and mathematical abilities cannot be taken for granted, calling for further investigations on the factors underlying this perceptual phenomenon.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aptitude; Bayes Theorem; Child; Developmental Disabilities; Dyscalculia; Humans; Mathematics
PubMed: 35379895
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-09709-5 -
Journal of Experimental Psychology.... Jun 2021Can children solve Bayesian problems, given that these pose great difficulties even for most adults? We present an ecological framework in which emerge from a match...
Can children solve Bayesian problems, given that these pose great difficulties even for most adults? We present an ecological framework in which emerge from a match between children's numerical competencies and external representations of numerosity. Bayesian intuition is defined here as the ability to determine the exact Bayesian posterior probability by minds untutored in probability theory or in Bayes' rule. As we show, Bayesian intuitions do not require processing of probabilities or Arabic numbers, but basically the ability to count tokens in icon arrays and to understand what to count. A series of experiments demonstrates for the first time that icon arrays elicited Bayesian intuitions in children as young as second-graders for 22% to 32% of all problems; fourth-graders achieved 50% to 60%. Most surprisingly, icon arrays elicited Bayesian intuitions in children with dyscalculia, a specific learning disorder that has been attributed to genetic causes. These children could solve an impressive 50% of Bayesian problems, a level similar to that of children without dyscalculia. By seventh grade, children solved about two thirds of Bayesian problems with natural frequencies alone, without the additional help of icon arrays. We identify four non-Bayesian rules. On the basis of these results, we propose a common solution for the phylogenetic, the ontogenetic, and the 1970s puzzles in the Bayesian literature and argue for a revision of how to teach statistical thinking. In accordance with recent work on infants' numerical abilities, these findings indicate that children have more numerical ability than previously assumed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Adult; Bayes Theorem; Child; Humans; Infant; Intuition; Mathematics; Phylogeny; Probability Theory
PubMed: 33119349
DOI: 10.1037/xge0000979