Electrophysiological Activation during Reading: Investigating State Anxiety in Students with Developmental Dyslexia

背景：英国十分之一的人患有焦虑症。对于患有阅读障碍的人来说，这一比例急剧增加，因为他们越来越容易出现社会情感困难（Anxiety UK，2015）。焦虑作为阅读障碍的一个特征，在儿童研究中得到了最普遍的讨论，导致缺乏对高等教育学生阅读焦虑的研究；这不利于理解阅读障碍患者学习的持续过程。目的：促进对阅读障碍的情绪后果及其在整个生命周期中的差异的理解。方法：需要对定性和生理测量进行校准，以评估阅读障碍患者阅读副产品所产生的焦虑。将通过非侵入性事件相关电位（脑电图）和心率变异性来研究生理唤醒，以响应阅读刺激，针对单词和非单词的默读和大声阅读。定性数据将通过自我报告的焦虑量表收集。该研究询问患有阅读障碍的学生在阅读时是否比一般阅读的学生经历更强的生理唤醒，假设阅读困难的学生对无声阅读和大声阅读刺激都会表现出更强的唤醒，大声阅读会引起最强烈的情绪反应，并在非文字阅读时达到峰值。潜在影响：研究将有助于简化一种新的方法模型，用于研究特定学习困难的情绪后果。该研究还可能与促进积极的心理健康以及在高等教育机构提供学术和情感支持有关。

Background: 1 in 10 people in the UK have an anxiety disorder. This ratio radicallyincreases for individuals with dyslexia as they are increasingly vulnerable todeveloping socio-emotional difficulties (Anxiety UK, 2015). Anxiety as a feature ofdyslexia has been most prevalently discussed in childhood studies, resulting in apaucity of research examining reading anxiety with higher education students; thisis detrimental to understanding the continued account of learning with dyslexia.Objective: To advance understanding of dyslexia's emotional consequences andhow it differs across the lifespan.Methodology: Calibration of qualitative and physiological measures is needed toevaluate anxiety as a by-product of reading with dyslexia. Physiological arousalwill be investigated with non-invasive event-related potential(electroencephalography) and heart rate variability in response to readingstimulus, targeting silent and aloud reading of words and non-words. Qualitativedata will be collected through self-reported anxiety inventories. The research askswhether students with dyslexia experience stronger physiological arousal whenreading than typically-reading students, hypothesising dyslexic students willexhibit stronger arousal to both silent and aloud reading stimuli, with aloudreading eliciting the strongest emotional response and peaking at points of nonwordreading.Potential Impact: Research would contribute towards streamlining a newmethodological model for researching emotional consequences of specificlearning difficulties. The research may also be relevant for promoting positivemental well-being and providing academic and emotional support at highereducation institutions.