NSF/SBE-BSF: Biological mechanisms underlying the acquisition of reading skills

人类行为的许多方面，如走路，微笑和学习语言，都是随着儿童对世界和周围人的体验而自然发展的。 然而，阅读并不是一种自然发生的发展。 相反，学习阅读需要指导、训练和练习。 这项资助项目的目标是调查儿童的大脑在两个月的阅读教学过程中是如何变化的。目前的提议利用了研究小组开发的尖端测量技术和软件算法，以表征学习阅读的生物过程。在为期八周的强化阅读教学计划中，将纵向跟踪6至12岁的儿童。定量磁共振成像（MRI）测量对髓鞘形成、新组织大分子的产生和白色物质内轴突的堆积密度的变化敏感，将用于监测学习期间脑组织结构的变化。功能性磁共振成像将被用来模拟大脑的阅读电路如何响应阅读指令而改变所进行的计算。通过整合多种测量方式，并对不同年龄的儿童进行抽样，该项目将确定大脑的经验依赖性可塑性在小学课程中如何变化，以及是否可以根据儿童阅读电路模型预测学习。为此，该项目解决了3个主要挑战：（1）确定人类白色物质的哪些特性会随着阅读指令而变化;（2）测量大脑的可塑性能力如何随着发育而变化;（3）模拟大脑回路结构变化与皮质计算之间的关系。了解发育中的大脑如何构建电路，将印刷符号快速转化为意义，是一项重要的科学挑战，对教育和阅读障碍的治疗具有重要意义。更深入地了解生物和认知发展之间的相互作用将导致创新的教育方法，适合儿童独特的大脑成熟模式。

Many aspects of human behavior such as walking, smiling, and learning a language develop naturally as children experience the world and people around them. However reading is not a naturally occurring development. Rather, learning to read requires instruction, training, and practice. The goal of this funded project is to investigate how children's brains change over the course of two months of reading instruction. The present proposal capitalizes on cutting-edge measurement techniques and software algorithms that the research team has developed, to characterize the biological processes that underlie learning to read.Children between six and twelve years of age will be followed longitudinally during an eight-week, intensive reading instruction program. Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) measurements that are sensitive to changes in myelination, the creation of new tissue macromolecules, and the packing density of axons within the white matter will be used to monitor changes in brain tissue structure during learning. Functional MRI will be used to model how the computations performed by the brain's reading circuitry change in response to reading instruction. By integrating multiple measurement modalities, and sampling children of different ages, this project will determine how the brain's capacity for experience-dependent plasticity changes over the course of elementary school and whether learning can be predicted based on a model of a child's reading circuitry. Toward this end, the project tackles 3 major challenges: (1) Determine what properties of human white matter change in response to reading instruction; (2) Measure how the brain's capacity for plasticity changes over development; and (3) Model the relationship between changes in brain circuit structure and cortical computation. Understanding how the developing brain builds circuits to rapidly translate printed symbols into meaning is an important scientific challenge with implications for education and the treatment of reading disabilities. A deeper understanding of the interplay between biological and cognitive development will lead to innovative approaches to education that are tailored to a child's unique pattern of brain maturation.