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Brain Sciences Feb 2022Mathematical performance implies a series of numerical and mathematical skills (both innate and derived from formal training) as well as certain general cognitive... (Review)
Review
UNLABELLED
Mathematical performance implies a series of numerical and mathematical skills (both innate and derived from formal training) as well as certain general cognitive abilities that, if inadequate, can have a cascading effect on mathematics learning. These latter skills were the focus of the present systematic review.
METHOD
The reviewing process was conducted according to the PRISMA statement. We included 46 studies comparing school-aged children's performance with and without math difficulties in the following cognitive domains: processing speed, phonological awareness, short- and long-term memory, executive functions, and attention.
RESULTS
The results showed that some general cognitive domains were compromised in children with mathematical difficulties (i.e., executive functions, attention, and processing speed).
CONCLUSIONS
These cognitive functions should be evaluated during the diagnostic process in order to better understand the child's profile and propose individually tailored interventions. However, further studies should investigate the role of skills that have been poorly investigated to date (e.g., long-term memory and phonological awareness).
PubMed: 35204002
DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12020239 -
Journal of the American Association of... Dec 2017Despite achievement of optimal low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) control with statin therapy, patients with elevated triglycerides (TGs) and residual... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Despite achievement of optimal low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) control with statin therapy, patients with elevated triglycerides (TGs) and residual cardiovascular risk are commonly encountered in clinical practice.
METHODS
We present information from completed and ongoing clinical trials examining Rx omega-3s for TG-lowering and omega-3 dietary supplements to highlight important differences affecting patient management for nurse practitioners.
CONCLUSIONS
Rx omega-3s demonstrate robust reductions in TGs and may have a role in reducing residual cardiovascular risk. Products containing docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) may raise LDL-C and should not be substituted for Rx eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)-only icosapent ethyl, which does not raise LDL-C. Omega-3 dietary supplements (e.g., fish oils containing EPA and DHA) may be used for general health promotion; however, they are not regulated as medications and concerns regarding quality, purity, safety, and variability of content exist. It is important to advise patients that omega-3 dietary supplements are not medications and should not be substituted for Rx omega-3s. Large-scale cardiovascular outcomes studies are underway for Rx omega-3s in statin-treated patients.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Nurse practitioners can take an active role in reducing residual cardiovascular risk and educating patients about important differences between Rx omega-3s and fish oil supplements.
Topics: Cardiovascular Diseases; Dietary Supplements; Eicosapentaenoic Acid; Fatty Acids, Omega-3; Fish Oils; Humans; Hypertriglyceridemia; Prescription Drugs; Risk Factors; Triglycerides
PubMed: 29280361
DOI: 10.1002/2327-6924.12535 -
Translational Psychiatry Dec 2018Adequate mathematical competencies are currently indispensable in professional and social life. However, mathematics is often associated with stress and frustration and...
Adequate mathematical competencies are currently indispensable in professional and social life. However, mathematics is often associated with stress and frustration and the confrontation with tasks that require mathematical knowledge triggers anxiety in many children. We examined if there is a relationship between math anxiety and changes in brain structure in children with and without developmental dyscalculia. Our findings showed that math anxiety is related to altered brain structure. In particular, the right amygdala volume was reduced in individuals with higher math anxiety. In conclusion, math anxiety not only hinders children in arithmetic development, but it is associated with altered brain structure in areas related to fear processing. This emphasizes the far-reaching outcome emotional factors in mathematical cognition can have and encourages educators and researchers alike to consider math anxiety to prevent detrimental long-term consequences on school achievement and quality of life, especially in children with developmental dyscalculia.
Topics: Adolescent; Amygdala; Anxiety; Child; Dyscalculia; Female; Humans; Intelligence; Intelligence Tests; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Mathematical Concepts
PubMed: 30531959
DOI: 10.1038/s41398-018-0320-6 -
Journal of Clinical Medicine Apr 2022Atypical development of numerical cognition (dyscalculia) may increase the onset of neuropsychiatric symptoms, especially when untreated, and it may have long-term... (Review)
Review
Atypical development of numerical cognition (dyscalculia) may increase the onset of neuropsychiatric symptoms, especially when untreated, and it may have long-term detrimental social consequences. However, evidence-based treatments are still lacking. Despite plenty of studies investigating the effects of transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) on numerical cognition, a systematized synthesis of results is still lacking. In the present systematic review (PROSPERO ID: CRD42021271139), we found that the majority of reports (20 out of 26) showed the effectiveness of tES in improving both number (80%) and arithmetic (76%) processing. In particular, anodal tDCS (regardless of lateralization) over parietal regions, bilateral tDCS (regardless of polarity/lateralization) over frontal regions, and tRNS (regardless of brain regions) strongly enhance number processing. While bilateral tDCS and tRNS over parietal and frontal regions and left anodal tDCS over frontal regions consistently improve arithmetic skills. In addition, tACS seems to be more effective than tDCS at ameliorating arithmetic learning. Despite the variability of methods and paucity of clinical studies, tES seems to be a promising brain-based treatment to enhance numerical cognition. Recommendations for clinical translation, future directions, and limitations are outlined.
PubMed: 35456176
DOI: 10.3390/jcm11082082 -
Progress in Brain Research 2016Numbers are one of the most pervasive stimulus categories in our environment and an integral foundation of modern society. Yet, up to 20% of individuals fail to...
Numbers are one of the most pervasive stimulus categories in our environment and an integral foundation of modern society. Yet, up to 20% of individuals fail to understand, represent, and manipulate numbers and form the basis of arithmetic, a condition termed developmental dyscalculia (DD). Multiple cognitive and neural systems including those that serve numerical, mnemonic, visuospatial, and cognitive control functions have independently been implicated in the etiology of DD, yet most studies have not taken a comprehensive or dynamic view of the disorder. This chapter supports the view of DD as a multifaceted neurodevelopmental disorder that is the result of multiple aberrancies at one or multiple levels of the information processing hierarchy, which supports successful arithmetic learning, and suggests that interventions should target all these systems to achieve successful outcomes, at the behavioral and neural levels.
Topics: Cognition Disorders; Dyscalculia; Humans; Learning Disabilities; Mathematics; Mood Disorders
PubMed: 27339017
DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2016.04.024 -
Journal of Vision Aug 2020Visual crowding refers to the inability to identify objects when surrounded by other similar items. Crowding-like mechanisms are thought to play a key role in numerical...
Visual crowding refers to the inability to identify objects when surrounded by other similar items. Crowding-like mechanisms are thought to play a key role in numerical perception by determining the sensory mechanisms through which ensembles are perceived. Enhanced visual crowding might hence prevent the normal development of a system involved in segregating and perceiving discrete numbers of items and ultimately the acquisition of more abstract numerical skills. Here, we investigated whether excessive crowding occurs in developmental dyscalculia (DD), a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulty in learning the most basic numerical and arithmetical concepts, and whether it is found independently of associated major reading and attentional difficulties. We measured spatial crowding in two groups of adult individuals with DD and control subjects. In separate experiments, participants were asked to discriminate the orientation of a Gabor patch either in isolation or under spatial crowding. Orientation discrimination thresholds were comparable across groups when stimuli were shown in isolation, yet they were much higher for the DD group with respect to the control group when the target was crowded by closely neighbouring flanking gratings. The difficulty in discriminating orientation (as reflected by the combination of accuracy and reaction times) in the DD compared to the control group persisted over several larger target flanker distances. Finally, we found that the degree of such spatial crowding correlated with impairments in mathematical abilities even when controlling for visual attention and reading skills. These results suggest that excessive crowding effects might be a characteristic of DD, independent of other associated neurodevelopmental disorders.
Topics: Adult; Attention; Crowding; Dyscalculia; Female; Humans; Learning; Male; Neuropsychological Tests; Orientation, Spatial; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Reaction Time; Reading; Visual Perception; Young Adult
PubMed: 32756882
DOI: 10.1167/jov.20.8.7 -
Child: Care, Health and Development Jan 2022The study aims to investigate the social, emotional, and behavioral challenges in children with a specific learning disability (SLD) and to identify the factors that...
BACKGROUND
The study aims to investigate the social, emotional, and behavioral challenges in children with a specific learning disability (SLD) and to identify the factors that accompany these problems by screening with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ).
METHODS
The descriptive study was conducted on 278 children with SLD. Strengths and difficulties in children were evaluated by the SDQ applied to their mothers. The percentage of cases above the cut-off limits of the SDQ was calculated. Chi-square test and multiple logistic regression analysis were used for analysis.
RESULTS
The mean (SD) total SDQ score was 15.8 (6.5). The percentage of scores of abnormal total difficulties in SLD was 47.8%. Multivariate analysis revealed that cases exposed to antenatal smoking had higher odds ratio of abnormal emotional symptoms and abnormal total difficulties; cases with poor familial income and the presence of a history of antenatal smoking exposure showed considerably higher odds ratio of conduct problems; cases with younger age at the diagnosis of SLD, dyscalculia, extreme duration of preschool screen time (≥4 h), and history of hospitalization had significantly higher odds ratio for hyperactivity-inattention problems; and cases having shorter breastfeeding duration had higher odds ratio of peer problems compared to counterparts.
CONCLUSION
Children with SLD have a high score on the SDQ. Practitioners could especially give guidance and support to families with financial problems and those having a child with an early age at diagnosis, exposure to antenatal smoking, short breastfeeding period, early age of the first screen use, and long screen exposure duration during the preschool period.
Topics: Child; Child, Preschool; Educational Status; Emotions; Female; Humans; Learning Disabilities; Pregnancy; Problem Behavior; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 34331711
DOI: 10.1111/cch.12903 -
Frontiers in Psychology 2018The study examined whether developmental deficits in reading and numerical skills could be expressed in terms of global factors by reference to the rate and amount (RAM)...
The study examined whether developmental deficits in reading and numerical skills could be expressed in terms of global factors by reference to the rate and amount (RAM) and difference engine (DEM) models. From a sample of 325 fifth grade children, we identified 5 children with dyslexia, 16 with dyscalculia, 7 with a "mixed pattern," and 49 control children. Children were asked to read aloud words presented individually that varied for frequency and length and to respond (either vocally or manually) to a series of simple number tasks (addition, subtraction, number reading, and number comparisons). Reaction times were measured. Results indicated that the deficit of children with dyscalculia and children with a mixed pattern on numerical tasks could be explained by a single global factor, similarly to the reading deficit shown by children with dyslexia. As predicted by the DEM, increases in task difficulty were accompanied by a corresponding increase in inter-individual variability for both the reading and numerical tasks. These relationships were constant across the four groups of children but differed in terms of slope and intercept on the -axis, indicating that two different general rules underlie performance in reading and numerical skills. The study shows for the first time that, as previously shown for reading, also numerical performance can be explained with reference to a global factor. The advantage of this approach is that it takes into account the over-additivity effect, i.e., the presence of larger group differences in the case of more difficult conditions over and above the characteristics of the experimental conditions. It is concluded that reference to models such as the RAM and DEM can be useful in delineating the characteristics of the dyscalculic deficit as well as in the description of co-morbid disturbances, as in the case of dyslexia and dyscalculia.
PubMed: 29515490
DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00171 -
Epilepsy & Behavior : E&B Sep 2022Monitoring adverse effects related to epilepsy surgery is essential for quality control and for counseling patients prior to the procedure. The aim of this study was to...
OBJECTIVE
Monitoring adverse effects related to epilepsy surgery is essential for quality control and for counseling patients prior to the procedure. The aim of this study was to analyze the rates of complications related to epilepsy surgery following invasive monitoring and to classify them according to the recently proposed protocol by the E-pilepsy consortium.
METHODS
This is a retrospective study of collected data extracted from our routinely updated epilepsy surgery database which consisted of 173 surgical procedures: 89 surgeries for insertion of subdural grids, strips, and/or depth electrodes, and 84 resective surgeries. According to the protocol, complications were defined as unexpected postoperative adverse events and were stratified into transient (lasting less than 6 months) and permanent deficits (lasting 6 months or longer). In addition, we reported patients with postoperative psychiatric disturbances and calculated the rates of transient and permanent postoperative sequelae which were defined as expected postoperative deficits deemed inherent to the surgical procedure.
RESULTS
Six potentially life-threatening complications requiring acceleration of the planned resective surgery occurred during invasive monitoring. Following resective surgery, 12 transient sequelae (8 motor deficits, three language deficits, and one transient dyscalculia) and 10 permanent sequelae (5 mild memory disturbances, four visual field cuts, and one contralateral dysesthesia) occurred. In addition, 7 patients experienced transient motor complications. Four permanent postoperative neurological complications (4.8%) occurred: motor deficits in three patients and a partial peripheral facial palsy in one. Finally, five patients developed de novo psychiatric disturbances (transient in four and permanent in one).
CONCLUSIONS
This is the first study to classify complications of epilepsy surgery according to the E-pilepsy consortium protocol. Our findings demonstrate that epilepsy surgery following invasive monitoring is safe and associated with low morbidity when performed in specialized centers. Monitoring these complications according to a unified definition and using a multidimensional protocol will allow for a direct comparison across epilepsy surgery centers, will provide the epileptologists and surgeons with objective percentages to share with their patients and will help in identifying risk factors and improving the safety of epilepsy surgery.
Topics: Electrodes, Implanted; Electroencephalography; Epilepsy; Humans; Neurosurgical Procedures; Postoperative Complications; Retrospective Studies; Subdural Space
PubMed: 35853316
DOI: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2022.108844 -
Zhurnal Nevrologii I Psikhiatrii Imeni... 2022The article presents an overview of scientific publications devoted to the study of dyscalculia. Present-day data on the prevalence of this pathology, the features of...
The article presents an overview of scientific publications devoted to the study of dyscalculia. Present-day data on the prevalence of this pathology, the features of the clinical picture, and theories of neurocognitive deficit underlying the disorder in the processing of numerical information are presented. The results of neurophysiological and neuroimaging studies devoted to the study of the features of the functional activity of various brain structures in dyscalculia are considered.
Topics: Brain; Child; Developmental Disabilities; Dyscalculia; Humans; Neuroimaging
PubMed: 36170101
DOI: 10.17116/jnevro202212209262