Is cognitive dysfunction in learning disabilities correlated to their brain dysfunction?

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This research project intended to investigate the relationship of cognitive dysfunction and brain dysfunction in the learning, disabilities (LD). Their cognitive abilities were meadured by various psychological tests and/or cognitive tasks and brain dysfunctional states were measured by various neurological and physiological tests. The resuluts are follows.(1) Physiological data from muti-channel electroencephalogram, brain blood-flow recorded by SPECT and hormonic secretion recorded by urinalysis showed abonormal in the frontal cortex, hypothalamus, and/or basal ganglion area in the LDs.(2) Behavioral data from many cognitive tasks ; e.g.letter-cancelation, serial memory task, letter discrimination, and face recognition etc., showed less correct socres and more false-alarm errors in the LDs than in the normals. These resuluts suggested dysfunction of the attentional processes.(3) The amplitude of attentional or cognitive components of event-related potentials were less in the LDs than the normals, and moreover, than their own performance levles. These resuluts suggested that any brain dysfunction would be found in the LDs, but would not directly correlate to the type of the cognitive dysfunction.(4) These behabioral and physiological characteristics in the LDs were not constant, and elevated by stimulant drugs and by learning effects through the repetition of the same tasks. These resuluts suggested the posibility of treatment and education in learning disabilities.