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Research in Developmental Disabilities Jun 2024Visual search problems are often reported in children with Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI). To tackle the clinical challenge of objectively differentiating CVI from...
Visual search problems are often reported in children with Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI). To tackle the clinical challenge of objectively differentiating CVI from other neurodevelopmental disorders, we developed a novel test battery. Visual search tasks were coupled with verbal and gaze-based measurements. Two search tasks were performed by children with CVI (n: 22; mean age (SD): 9.63 (.46) years) ADHD (n: 32; mean age (SD): 10.51 (.25) years), dyslexia (n: 28; mean age (SD): 10.29 (.20) years) and neurotypical development (n: 44; mean age (SD): 9.30 (.30) years). Children with CVI had more impaired search performance compared to all other groups, especially in crowded and unstructured displays and even when they had normal visual acuity. In-depth gaze-based analyses revealed that this group searched in overall larger areas and needed more time to recognize a target, particularly after their initial fixation on the target. Our gaze-based approach to visual search offers new insights into the distinct search patterns and behaviours of children with CVI. Their tendency to overlook targets whilst fixating on it, point towards higher-order visual function (HOVF) deficits. The novel method is feasible, valid, and promising for clinical differential-diagnostic evaluation between CVI, ADHD and dyslexia, and for informing individualized training.
PubMed: 38861794
DOI: 10.1016/j.ridd.2024.104767 -
Clinical Neurophysiology : Official... Jun 2024We longitudinally investigated whether infant P1 and N2 ERPs recorded in newborns and at 28 months could predict pre-reading skills at 28 months and 4-5 years.
OBJECTIVE
We longitudinally investigated whether infant P1 and N2 ERPs recorded in newborns and at 28 months could predict pre-reading skills at 28 months and 4-5 years.
METHODS
We recorded ERPs to a pseudoword in newborns and at 28 months in a sample over-represented by infants with familial dyslexia risk. Using multiple linear regression models, we examined P1 and N2 associations with pre-reading skills at 28 months and 4-5 years.
RESULTS
Shorter latencies of the newborn P1 predicted faster serial naming at 28 months. Larger amplitudes and shorter latencies of P1 at 28 months predicted better serial naming abilities and auditory working memory across the pre-reading stage. Right-lateralized P1 and N2 were related to poorer pre-reading skills.
CONCLUSIONS
Infant ERPs, particularly P1, providing information about neural speech encoding abilities, are associated with pre-reading skill development.
SIGNIFICANCE
Infant and early childhood neural speech encoding abilities may work as early predictive markers of reading development and impairment. This study may help to plan early interventions targeting phonological processing to prevent or ameliorate learning deficits.
PubMed: 38852433
DOI: 10.1016/j.clinph.2024.05.016 -
Neuropsychologia Jun 2024Different tasks have been used in examining the neural functional differences associated with developmental dyslexia (DD), and consequently, different findings have been...
Different tasks have been used in examining the neural functional differences associated with developmental dyslexia (DD), and consequently, different findings have been reported. However, very few studies have systematically compared multiple tasks in understanding what specific task differences each brain region is associated with. In this study, we employed an auditory rhyming task, a visual rhyming task, and a visual spelling task, in order to investigate shared and task-specific neural differences in Chinese children with DD. First, we found that children with DD had reduced activation in the opercular part of the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) only in the two rhyming tasks, suggesting impaired phonological analysis. Children with DD showed functional differences in the right lingual gyrus/inferior occipital gyrus only in the two visual tasks, suggesting deficiency in their visuo-orthographic processing. Moreover, children with DD showed reduced activation in the left dorsal inferior frontal gyrus and increased activation in the right precentral gyrus across all of the three tasks, suggesting neural signatures of DD in Chinese. In summary, our study successfully separated brain regions associated with differences in orthographic processing, phonological processing, and general lexical processing in DD. It advances our understanding about the neural mechanisms of DD.
PubMed: 38848989
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.108935 -
Respiratory Medicine and Research Mar 2024COVID-19 started to spread early in 2020, the precise year that lung cancer (LC) patients were recruited into the prospective epidemiological cohort KBP-2020-CPHG in...
BACKGROUND
COVID-19 started to spread early in 2020, the precise year that lung cancer (LC) patients were recruited into the prospective epidemiological cohort KBP-2020-CPHG in French hospitals. This provides a unique opportunity to study COVID-19 incidence, survival risk factors, and overall prognosis.
METHODS
COVID data was collected before vaccination was made available. Clinical characteristics were compared (COVID vs non-COVID), incidence rate ratios were calculated based on clinical characteristics, survival (1 and 3 months) was estimated and the impact of COVID-19 on the overall prognosis of the cohort was studied.
RESULTS
In 2020, 285 out of 8,999 lung cancer patients were diagnosed with COVID-19. Diagnosis was mainly based on PCR tests (86.3 %). The annual incidence was 8.3 % (95 % CI [7.4, 9.3]); it was higher in former smokers and patients with squamous cell carcinoma or small cell carcinoma than in those with adenocarcinoma, in those with a PS score ≥2 versus 0-1, and with stages III-IV versus stages I-II. The incidence was reduced in patients who received chemotherapy or immunotherapy. 64.9 % of patients were hospitalized due to COVID-19. Risk factors for death at 1 and 3 months in COVID-19 patients were age, LC stage, and PS score. Multivariate analysis showed a major prognostic impact of COVID-19 on mortality of LC patients (hazard ratio: 4.12, 95 % CI [3.42, 4.97], p < 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS
This prospective study demonstrated the high incidence of COVID-19 in LC patients and identified as risk factors for COVID-19: smoking status, histology, PS, and stage. The impact of COVID-19 on lung cancer mortality appears major.
PubMed: 38848641
DOI: 10.1016/j.resmer.2024.101093 -
Neurobiology of Language (Cambridge,... 2024Early childhood is a critical period for structural brain development as well as an important window for the identification and remediation of reading difficulties....
Early childhood is a critical period for structural brain development as well as an important window for the identification and remediation of reading difficulties. Recent research supports the implementation of interventions in at-risk populations as early as kindergarten or first grade, yet the neurocognitive mechanisms following such interventions remain understudied. To address this, we investigated cortical structure by means of anatomical MRI before and after a 12-week tablet-based intervention in: (1) at-risk children receiving phonics-based training ( = 29; = 16 complete pre-post datasets), (2) at-risk children engaging with AC training ( = 24; = 15 complete pre-post datasets) and (3) typically developing children ( = 25; = 14 complete pre-post datasets) receiving no intervention. At baseline, we found higher surface area of the right supramarginal gyrus in at-risk children compared to typically developing peers, extending previous evidence that early anatomical differences exist in children who may later develop dyslexia. Our longitudinal analysis revealed significant post-intervention thickening of the left supramarginal gyrus, present exclusively in the intervention group but not the active control or typical control groups. Altogether, this study contributes new knowledge to our understanding of the brain morphology associated with cognitive risk for dyslexia and response to early intervention, which in turn raises new questions on how early anatomy and plasticity may shape the trajectories of long-term literacy development.
PubMed: 38832361
DOI: 10.1162/nol_a_00122 -
Cognitive Neuropsychology 2023Reading is a complex process involving multiple stages. An impairment in any of these stages may cause distinct types of reading deficits- distinct types of dyslexia. We...
Reading is a complex process involving multiple stages. An impairment in any of these stages may cause distinct types of reading deficits- distinct types of dyslexia. We describe the Malabi, a screener to identify deficits in various orthographic, lexical, and sublexical components of the reading process in French. The Malabi utilizes stimuli that are sensitive to different forms of dyslexia, including "attentional dyslexia", as it is traditionally refered to, characterized by letter-to-word binding impairments leading to letter migrations between words (e.g., "bar cat" misread as "bat car"), and "letter-position dyslexia", resulting in letter transpositions within words (e.g., "destiny" misread as "density"). After collecting reading error norms from 138 French middle-school students, we analyzed error types of 16 students with developmental dyslexia. We identified three selective cases of attentional dyslexia and one case of letter-position dyslexia. Further tests confirmed our diagnosis and demonstrate, for the first time, how these dyslexias are manifested in French. These results underscore the significance of recognizing and discussing the existence of multiple dyslexias, both in research contexts when selecting participants for dyslexia studies, and in practical settings where educators and practitioners work with students to develop personalized support. The test and supporting materials are available on Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/3pgzb/).
Topics: Humans; Dyslexia; Female; Male; Reading; France; Child; Adolescent; Neuropsychological Tests; Attention
PubMed: 38831527
DOI: 10.1080/02643294.2024.2327665 -
JCPP Advances Jun 2024The concept of neurodiversity draws upon scientific research, and lessons from practice and lived experience to suggest new ways of thinking about neurodevelopmental...
BACKGROUND
The concept of neurodiversity draws upon scientific research, and lessons from practice and lived experience to suggest new ways of thinking about neurodevelopmental conditions. Among the formative observations are that characteristics associated with neurodevelopmental conditions are part of a "broader phenotype" of variation across the whole population, and that there appear to be "transdiagnostic" similarities as well as differences in these characteristics. These observations raise important questions that have implications for understanding diversity in neurodevelopmental conditions and in neurocognitive phenotypes across the whole population.
METHOD
The present work examines broader phenotypes using seven widely used self-report assessments of traits associated with autism, ADHD, dyslexia, Developmental Coordination Disorder/dyspraxia, tic disorders/Tourette's, cortical hyperexcitability associated with subclinical epilepsy, and sensory sensitivities. A representative sample of 995 adults (aged 17-77) in the UK completed self-report measures of neurodiversity, wellbeing, generalized anxiety, and depression, and cognitive abilities (nonverbal intelligence and executive functioning).
RESULTS
We used confirmatory factor analysis to test whether variation and covariation was better characterized (1) by traditional diagnostic labels, or (2) transdiagnostically according to similarities in functions, behaviours, or phenomena. Results indicated that neurodiversity characteristics were best explained using a bifactor model with one general "N" factor and four condition-specific factors.
CONCLUSION
This was the largest examination to date of the factor structure of broader phenotypes relevant to neurodevelopmental conditions. It provides critical benchmark data, and a framework approach for asking systematic questions about the structure of neurocognitive diversities seen in the whole population and in people with one or more diagnoses.
PubMed: 38827989
DOI: 10.1002/jcv2.12219 -
Language, Speech, and Hearing Services... Jul 2024Emerging literature suggests caregiver self-efficacy is an important factor related to caregivers' shared reading practices with their children. Reduced shared reading...
PURPOSE
Emerging literature suggests caregiver self-efficacy is an important factor related to caregivers' shared reading practices with their children. Reduced shared reading has been documented among families of caregiver(s) with language-based learning disabilities (LBLD). Yet, it remains unclear whether caregivers' history of language and reading difficulties is associated with caregiver self-efficacy. The purpose of this study was to examine whether self-efficacy in language- and reading-related caregiver activities related to caregiver history of language and reading difficulties and shared reading practices.
METHOD
One hundred seventy-six caregivers of children aged 18-60 months completed a custom self-efficacy in language- and reading-related caregiver activities questionnaire, as well as demographic, history of language and reading difficulties (used both as a continuous measure and to dichotomize caregivers with and without LBLD history), and shared reading measures in a one-time survey.
RESULTS
Caregivers with a history of LBLD reported an overall lower self-efficacy and a reduced amount of time reading with their children per week than caregivers without LBLD history. Examining caregiver history of language and reading difficulties continuously across the whole group, self-efficacy mediated the relationship between caregiver difficulties and shared reading practices, even when caregiver education was incorporated as an additional mediator in models.
CONCLUSIONS
Findings indicate that self-efficacy and caregiver education mediate the relationship between caregiver history of language and reading difficulties and shared reading practices. Consideration of self-efficacy by clinicians and educators is warranted when promoting shared reading practices to caregivers of young children. There is a need for future research to examine relationships between self-efficacy and shared reading among caregivers with LBLD of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25901590.
Topics: Humans; Caregivers; Self Efficacy; Male; Female; Reading; Child, Preschool; Dyslexia; Infant; Adult; Surveys and Questionnaires; Language Development Disorders
PubMed: 38820226
DOI: 10.1044/2024_LSHSS-23-00067 -
Child Development May 2024The relation between statistical learning and working memory in children with developmental dyslexia (DD) remains unclear. This study employed a distributional and a...
The relation between statistical learning and working memory in children with developmental dyslexia (DD) remains unclear. This study employed a distributional and a conditional statistical learning experiment and a working memory task to examine this relation in 651 Chinese 6- to 12-year-olds with and without DD (N = 199, 101 females; N = 452, 227 females; participated 2014-2019). Results showed working memory positively associated with recognizing high-predictable and familiar items in both groups, but negatively associated with recognizing unfamiliar items in the DD group only. These findings uncovered the complex interplay between statistical learning and working memory, demonstrating how different working memory abilities in children with and without DD relate to various statistical learning mechanisms at the item level.
PubMed: 38818864
DOI: 10.1111/cdev.14121 -
QJM : Monthly Journal of the... May 2024
PubMed: 38810132
DOI: 10.1093/qjmed/hcae107