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Brain Sciences Sep 2022Neurofeedback (NF) is a type of biofeedback in which an individual's brain activity is measured and presented to them to support self-regulation of ongoing brain... (Review)
Review
Neurofeedback (NF) is a type of biofeedback in which an individual's brain activity is measured and presented to them to support self-regulation of ongoing brain oscillations and achieve specific behavioral and neurophysiological outcomes. NF training induces changes in neurophysiological circuits that are associated with behavioral changes. Recent evidence suggests that the NF technique can be used to train electrical brain activity and facilitate learning among children with learning disorders. Toward this aim, this review first presents a generalized model for NF systems, and then studies involving NF training for children with disorders such as dyslexia, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and other specific learning disorders such as dyscalculia and dysgraphia are reviewed. The discussion elaborates on the potential for translational applications of NF in educational and learning settings with details. This review also addresses some issues concerning the role of NF in education, and it concludes with some solutions and future directions. In order to provide the best learning environment for children with ADHD and other learning disorders, it is critical to better understand the role of NF in educational settings. The review provides the potential challenges of the current systems to aid in highlighting the issues undermining the efficacy of current systems and identifying solutions to address them. The review focuses on the use of NF technology in education for the development of adaptive teaching methods and the best learning environment for children with learning disabilities.
PubMed: 36138974
DOI: 10.3390/brainsci12091238 -
Movement Disorders Clinical Practice May 2023
PubMed: 37205257
DOI: 10.1002/mdc3.13721 -
Neurology May 2022Most primary progressive aphasia (PPA) literature is based on English language users. Linguistic features that vary from English, such as logographic writing systems,...
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Most primary progressive aphasia (PPA) literature is based on English language users. Linguistic features that vary from English, such as logographic writing systems, are underinvestigated. The current study characterized the dysgraphia phenotypes of patients with PPA who write in Chinese and investigated their diagnostic utility in classifying PPA variants.
METHODS
This study recruited 40 participants with PPA and 20 cognitively normal participants from San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. We measured dictation accuracy using the Chinese Language Assessment for PPA (CLAP) 60-character orthographic dictation test and examined the occurrence of various writing errors across the study groups. We also performed voxel-based morphometry analysis to identify the gray matter regions correlated with dictation accuracy and prevalence of writing errors.
RESULTS
All PPA groups produced significantly less accurate writing responses than the control group and no significant differences in dictation accuracy were noted among the PPA variants. With a cut score of 36 out of 60 in the CLAP orthographic dictation task, the test achieved sensitivity and specificity of 90% and 95% in identifying Chinese participants with PPA vs controls. In addition to a character frequency effect, dictation accuracy was affected by homophone density and the number of strokes in semantic variant PPA and logopenic variant PPA groups. Dictation accuracy was correlated with volumetric changes over left ventral temporal cortices, regions known to be critical for orthographic long-term memory. Individuals with semantic variant PPA frequently presented with phonologically plausible errors at lexical level, patients with logopenic variant PPA showed higher preponderance towards visual and stroke errors, and patients with nonfluent/agrammatic variant PPA commonly exhibited compound word and radical errors. The prevalence of phonologically plausible, visual, and compound word errors was negatively correlated with cortical volume over the bilateral temporal regions, left temporo-occipital area, and bilateral orbitofrontal gyri, respectively.
DISCUSSION
The findings demonstrate the potential role of the orthographic dictation task as a screening tool and PPA classification indicator in Chinese language users. Each PPA variant had specific Chinese dysgraphia phenotypes that vary from those previously reported in English-speaking patients with PPA, highlighting the importance of language diversity in PPA.
Topics: Agraphia; Aphasia, Primary Progressive; China; Humans; Language; Phenotype; Primary Progressive Nonfluent Aphasia
PubMed: 35410909
DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000200350 -
Disability and Rehabilitation.... Nov 2023Learning disabilities or learning disorders are umbrella terms used for wide variety of learning problems like Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, and Dyspraxia. These...
PURPOSE
Learning disabilities or learning disorders are umbrella terms used for wide variety of learning problems like Dyslexia, Dyscalculia, Dysgraphia, and Dyspraxia. These disabilities are due to the neurological disorders which affects brain functions. Early diagnosis of these disabilities in kids from age 3 to 6 will help to start early medical treatments and get them back to the normal condition.
MATERIAL AND METHOD
we developed a software-based Learning Disability Evaluation Kit called YALU with computer Game Modules for kids targeting their learning disabilities. These Computer game-based modules of the YALU consist of different tasks for the different age levels to identify the symptoms of the disabilities mentioned above. The children's interaction results to each task of the game modules with the answers of the questioner about the children given by the parents will be evaluated with the threshold values given by a panel of consultant psychologist and paediatrician of the normal kids to identify the learning disabilities in kids aged 3-6 years. The result will be given to the respective parties and uploaded to the Website under the child's name.
RESULT
YALU has been tested using 50 students in age 3-5 in three preschools. The teachers have identified Fourteen students with some learning disability symptoms. Using YALU, twelve out of fourteen students had been clearly identified. Hence, the YALU Evaluation Kit to have an accuracy 85% in diagnosing the right disability. However, the accuracy could be increased with the accurate assessments of the parents about their kids.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONLearning disabilities are neurological disorders that affect the brain's ability to receive, process, store, respond to and communicate information; and there are four types (Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia)In this paper, we present the extracted computational techniques targeting the Dyslexia, Dyspraxia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia and developed a software application (YALU Learning Disability Evaluation Kit) which consists of computer game modules for the kids for evaluation their learning disabilities.The developed game modules can screen the learning disabilities and these gamification modules (YALU) consists of tasks which are based on symptoms of the said disabilities. The outcomes of each module is evaluated these learning disabilities in kids age from 3 years to 6 years by analysing children's interactions to the each tasks, the child condition and then compare the result with the threshold values of the normal kids given by consultant psychologist and paediatrician.
Topics: Child; Child, Preschool; Humans; Dyscalculia; Agraphia; Learning Disabilities; Dyslexia; Apraxias; Early Diagnosis; Video Games
PubMed: 34784486
DOI: 10.1080/17483107.2021.2003454 -
Progress in Neuro-psychopharmacology &... Jan 2023Writing abilities are impacted by dysgraphia, a condition of learning disability. It might be challenging to diagnose dysgraphia at an initial point of a child's...
Writing abilities are impacted by dysgraphia, a condition of learning disability. It might be challenging to diagnose dysgraphia at an initial point of a child's upbringing. Problematic abilities linked to Dysgraphia difficulties that is utilized in detecting the learning disorder. The features used in this research to identify dysgraphia include handwriting and geometric features that is reclaimed using kekre-discrete cosine mathematical model. The feature learning step of deep transfer learning makes good use of the obtained features to identify dysgraphia. The results of the data collection indicate that this study can use handwritten images to detect children who have dysgraphia. Compared to past investigations, this experiment has shown a significant improvement in the capacity to identify dysgraphia using handwritten drawings. The proposed approach is compared with the machine learning and deep learning approaches where the Kekre-Discrete Cosine Transform with Deep Transfer Learning (K-DCT-DTL) outperforms the existing approaches. The proposed K-DCT-DTL approach attains 99.75% of highest accuracy that exhibits the efficiency of the proposed method.
Topics: Child; Humans; Agraphia; Deep Learning; Handwriting; Machine Learning; Learning Disabilities
PubMed: 36181958
DOI: 10.1016/j.pnpbp.2022.110647 -
Data in Brief Jun 2024This report presents a dataset of offline handwriting samples among Malaysian schoolchildren with potential dysgraphia. The images contained Malay sentences written by...
This report presents a dataset of offline handwriting samples among Malaysian schoolchildren with potential dysgraphia. The images contained Malay sentences written by primary school students and children under intervention by the Malaysia Dyslexia Association (PDM). Students were expected to copy and write the sentences provided on the paper form that was used to gather data. Students were required to write three sets of sentences. The paper was digitalized by scanning it and converting it into digital form. Furthermore, the images were pre-processed using image processing techniques by converting the images into binary format and interchanging the foreground and background colors. The images were then classified into two categories, namely potential dysgraphia and low potential dysgraphia. The dataset comprised a total of 249 handwriting images, obtained from a sample of 83 participants who were selected in the data collection process, with 114 for potential dysgraphia and 135 for low potential dysgraphia. Both categories of handwriting images were prepared in black and white images.
PubMed: 38868380
DOI: 10.1016/j.dib.2024.110534 -
American Journal of Speech-language... Mar 2023Acquired central dysgraphia is a heterogeneous neurological disorder that usually co-occurs with other language disorders. Written language training is relevant to...
PURPOSE
Acquired central dysgraphia is a heterogeneous neurological disorder that usually co-occurs with other language disorders. Written language training is relevant to improve everyday skills and as a compensatory strategy to support limited oral communication. A systematic evaluation of existing writing treatments is thus needed.
METHOD
We performed a systematic review of speech and language therapies for acquired dysgraphia in studies of neurological diseases (PROSPERO: CRD42018084221), following the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) checklist with a search on several databases for articles written in English and published until August 31, 2021. Only methodological well-designed studies were included. Further assessment of methodological quality was conducted by means of a modified version of the Downs and Black checklist.
RESULTS
Eleven studies of 43 patients in total were included. For each study, we collected data on type of population, type of impairment, experimental design, type of treatment, and measured outcomes. The studies had a medium level of assessed methodological quality. An informative description of treatments and linkages to deficits is reported.
CONCLUSIONS
Although there is a need for further experimental evidence, most treatments showed good applicability and improvement of written skills in patients with dysgraphia. Lexical treatments appear to be more frequently adopted and more flexible in improving dysgraphia and communication, especially when a multimodal approach is used. Finally, the reported description of treatment modalities for dysgraphia in relation to patients' deficits may be important for providing tailored therapies in clinical management.
Topics: Humans; Agraphia; Speech; Language Therapy; Language Disorders; Language
PubMed: 36857041
DOI: 10.1044/2022_AJSLP-22-00042 -
Research in Developmental Disabilities Nov 2019This study examines the motor skills and motor-related daily functions of higher education students with and without dysgraphia, and their contribution in predicting...
This study examines the motor skills and motor-related daily functions of higher education students with and without dysgraphia, and their contribution in predicting handwriting performance. The sample included 82 higher education students aged 20-35 years old. Thirty-four were students without any known developmental disorder (NDD) and 48 students had dysgraphia. We individually administered a test battery evaluating handwriting performance, fine-motor skills, and visual-motor spatial-organization skills. Students also filled out a questionnaire relating to their fine- and gross-motor-related daily functions. Overall, the NDD students had significantly better motor skills and motor-related daily functions. Additionally, the motor skills and daily functions explained 62.9% of the variance in handwriting performance, and they correctly classified 90% of the students into the handwriting performance groups. Yet only visual-motor spatial organization and fine-motor-related daily functions significantly contributed to the fit of the model. These findings suggest that students with dysgraphia continue to encounter handwriting difficulties in higher education. These difficulties are linked to poor motor skills and motor-related daily functions. Therefore, higher education students with dysgraphia may require assistance and accommodations throughout their studies, not only with regard to their academic performance, but also in their motor-related daily functions.
Topics: Activities of Daily Living; Adult; Agraphia; Female; Handwriting; Humans; Male; Motor Skills; Needs Assessment; Psychomotor Performance; Spatial Processing; Students; Task Performance and Analysis
PubMed: 31518720
DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2019.103479 -
Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular... Oct 2020Gerstmann syndrome is defined as a tetrad including agraphia, acalculia, finger agnosia, and right-left disorientation. In the case studies presented in the literature,... (Review)
Review
Gerstmann syndrome is defined as a tetrad including agraphia, acalculia, finger agnosia, and right-left disorientation. In the case studies presented in the literature, it has been reported that Gerstmann syndrome usually appears as an incomplete tetrad of symptoms or accompanied by cognitive deficits including aphasia, alexia, apraxia and some perceptual disorders. Here, we present of the patient with left angular and supramarginal gyrus infarction affecting the parietal lobe. In addition to the symptoms mentioned above, the patient had alexia and anomic aphasia as well. We discussed the clinic appearance and reviewed the current literature.
Topics: Agraphia; Anomia; Cerebral Infarction; Dyscalculia; Dyslexia; Gerstmann Syndrome; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Parietal Lobe
PubMed: 32912538
DOI: 10.1016/j.jstrokecerebrovasdis.2020.105161