Probing the nature of deficits in the "Approximate Number System' in children with persistent Developmental Dyscalculia
Probing the nature of deficits in the "Approximate Number System' in children with persistent Developmental Dyscalculia
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DOI：
10.1111/desc.12324
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发表时间：
2016-09-01
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Ansari, Daniel
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bugden, Stephanie;Ansari, Daniel
在本研究中，我们研究了患有发展性计算障碍（DD）的儿童是否在所谓的近似数字系统（ANS）中表现出缺陷。为此，我们研究了一组4年来数学成绩持续较低的小学生，并将他们与正常发育（TD）、年龄匹配的对照组进行了比较。使用Panamath（）非符号数字判别测试来测量ANS的完整性。与TD对照组相比，DD患儿表现出不精确的ANS灵敏度，指标为较大的韦伯分数(w)。鉴于最近的研究结果表明，非符号数字辨别受到视觉参数的影响，我们进一步调查了儿童在点的数量和它们的整体面积是一致的还是不一致的试验中是否表现不同。该分析显示，在不一致的试验中，只有DD和TD儿童在w上存在差异。此外，视觉空间工作记忆在不一致试验中强烈地预测了ANS敏度(w)的个体差异。因此，当面积与数量反相关时，从点阵列中提取数字的困难可以解释DD中所谓的ANS缺陷。这些数据强调了视觉空间工作记忆在提取过程中的作用，并表明需要密切关注被认为代表ANS测量的任务所调用的感知过程。
In the present study we examined whether children with Developmental Dyscalculia (DD) exhibit a deficit in the so-called Approximate Number System' (ANS). To do so, we examined a group of elementary school children who demonstrated persistent low math achievement over 4years and compared them to typically developing (TD), aged-matched controls. The integrity of the ANS was measured using the Panamath () non-symbolic numerical discrimination test. Children with DD demonstrated imprecise ANS acuity indexed by larger Weber fraction (w) compared to TD controls. Given recent findings showing that non-symbolic numerical discrimination is affected by visual parameters, we went further and investigated whether children performed differently on trials on which number of dots and their overall area were either congruent or incongruent with each other. This analysis revealed that differences in w were only found between DD and TD children on the incongruent trials. In addition, visuo-spatial working memory strongly predicts individual differences in ANS acuity (w) during the incongruent trials. Thus the purported ANS deficit in DD can be explained by a difficulty in extracting number from an array of dots when area is anti-correlated with number. These data highlight the role of visuo-spatial working memory during the extraction process, and demonstrate that close attention needs to be paid to perceptual processes invoked by tasks thought to represent measures of the ANS.