Early Academic Achievement and Intervention Response: Role of Executive Function

项目摘要 2015年，超过30%的四年级学生没有表现出阅读和数学的熟练程度。 在学校和就业中取得成功的学术技能，更多地了解其背后的机制 学业成败是一个关键的公共卫生问题。虽然早期的阅读和数学成长都与 不同的认知技能（阅读的语音意识和数学的符号量处理），他们 也基本上重叠，如：（1）阅读和数学困难之间的共病;（2）重叠， 阅读和数学的遗传变异;以及（3）几个类似的认知过程，包括 执行功能（EF）是阅读和数学的重要认知相关因素。 经验证据也支持EF对阅读和数学的重要性。例如，虽然fMRI任务引起了 技能特异性区域[阅读：左侧枕颞区;数学：顶内沟]，EF区域也参与其中。 虽然在学龄儿童中EF与干预反应的预测关系可以忽略， 在学业上挣扎的儿童中，早期EF（学前班/幼儿园）显著预测了后来的学业成绩。 成功然而，尽管有这些观察到的关系，很少有了解的神经机制， EF-学术联系的发展，以及不同的神经网络如何与干预反应相关。 虽然支持阅读、数学和EF的大脑网络已经被分别研究，但它们的整合已经被研究。 没有在发展和干预背景下进行研究。当前提案的核心是，我们最近的 我们的工作强烈支持EF脑网络在学术界的作用：我们发现EF神经网络促进了 大脑中特定技能节点之间的联系。我们还发现，EF大脑区域与 阅读区域预测不良读者对阅读干预的反应具有95%的准确性。在目前的研究中， 我们利用我们团队在纵向多模态神经成像方面的专业知识来研究神经网络如何 支持EF和技能特定区域的发展和互动。具体来说，我们跟踪了260名儿童， 幼儿园到一年级，并研究EF和特定技能的神经网络相互作用如何预测 一般学术成长。然后，我们进一步深入研究EF-技能特定的网络交互 预测不良阅读者对（阅读）干预的反应。我们假设， EF和技能特定的神经网络，而不是单个网络本身，将高度预测：（a） 从幼儿园到一年级的阅读和数学发展（目标1）和（B）对阅读干预的反应 一年级阅读能力差（目标2）。总之，我们的建议旨在阐明EF如何影响早期学术 增长，特别是网络之间的相互作用（相对于单个网络）是否是核心驱动因素， EF-学术链接干预反应。鉴于EF缺陷在许多发展中国家的共同性， 疾病，建议的工作有高

PROJECT SUMMARY In 2015, over 30% of 4th graders did not show proficiency in reading and math. Given the importance of these academic skills for success in school and employment, understanding more about the mechanisms underlying academic success/failure is a key public health issue. While early reading and math growth each correlate with distinct cognitive skills (phonological awareness for reading and symbolic magnitude processing for math), they also substantially overlap, as seen by: (1) the comorbidity between reading and math difficulties; (2) overlap in genetic variance for reading and math; and (3) the fact that several similar cognitive processes, including executive functions (EFs), are important cognitive correlates of reading and math. Considerable theoretical and empirical evidence also supports the importance of EF to reading and math. For example, while fMRI tasks elicit skill-specific areas [reading: left occipito-temporal; math: intraparietal sulcus], EF regions also are engaged. Although the predictive relations between EF and intervention response are negligible in in school age children who are struggling academically, early EF (in preschool/Kindergarten) significantly predicts later academic success. However, despite these observed relations, there is little understanding of the neural mechanisms by which EF-academic linkages develop, and how distinct neural networks may relate to response to intervention. While brain networks supporting reading, math, and EF have been investigated separately, their integration has not been studied within a developmental and intervention context. Central to the current proposal, our recent work strongly supports a role for EF brain networks in academics: we find that EF neural networks facilitate connections between skill-specific nodes in the brain. We also find that the way EF brain regions interact with reading regions predicts poor readers’ response to reading intervention with 95% accuracy. In the current study, we leverage our team’s expertise in longitudinal multimodal neuroimaging to examine how the neural networks supporting EF and skill-specific regions develop and interact. Specifically, we follow 260 children from Kindergarten through 1st grade, and examine how EF and skill-specific neural network interactions predict general academic growth. Then, we drill down further to examine how EF-skill specific network interactions predict responsiveness to (reading) intervention in poor readers. We hypothesize that the interaction between EF and skill-specific neural networks, not the individual networks themselves, will be highly predictive of: (a) reading and math growth from Kindergarten through 1st grade (Aim 1) and (b) response to reading intervention in 1st grade poor readers (Aim 2). In sum, our proposal aims to elucidate how EF influences early academic growth, specifically whether interactions between networks (vs individual networks) are core driving factors in EF-academic links intervention response. Given the commonality of EF deficits across many developmental disorders, the proposed work has high