Supplement for Sikoya Ashburn to "An fMRI Study on the Neural Basis of Combined Math and Reading Disability"

 描述（由申请人提供）：数学残疾（MD）和阅读残疾（RD）在个人和社会层面上有显着的负面影响。两者的共存（MD+RD）是一个更大的挑战，并提出了一个迫切的问题，为研究人员和从业人员解决。神经相关的成功的数学和阅读干预儿童共病MD+RD是未知的，但这方面的知识将提供重要的见解MD+RD及其补救。我们将调查阅读和数学特定的干预引起的大脑变化和测试的假设，阅读和检索为基础的算术，因为口头介导，都通过阅读干预加强。使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）的方法，在我们以前的研究中，我们建议检查大脑区域，有助于（i）阅读，（ii）口头介导的，检索为基础的算术（加法的小数字），和（iii）程序为基础的算术（减法）。48名MD+RD儿童将在两个强化辅导期之前和之后进行研究：数学然后是阅读干预，反之亦然。在每次干预之后，我们将通过神经心理学测量和基于大脑的变化（阅读和基于检索/基于程序的数学任务期间的活动，静息状态连接和大脑解剖学）来检查阅读和数学表现。我们的第一个目标是测试阅读干预是否不仅在阅读（伴随着阅读过程中左半球大脑活动的增加）方面带来收益，而且在数学表现方面也带来收益，并且这些阅读干预诱导的数学变化也引起了语言所服务的相同左半球区域的基于检索的算术的增加。我们还预计，数学干预会导致标准化和实验性数学测量的收益沿着大脑活动的增加，这次是在基于程序的算术过程中的右半球顶叶皮层。因此，我们将通过操纵干预类型和fMRI任务来测试语言中介在MD+RD补救中的作用。我们将采用分析技术，使我们能够评估干预前后的脑-行为和脑-脑关系。在我们的第二个目标中，我们将测试在干预之前阅读和数学任务期间的大脑活动是否预测阅读和数学技能的改善，假设左下顶叶皮层在发出口头介导的“准备”信号以最大限度地从任何一种干预中受益方面起着关键作用。在第三个目标中，我们将汇总干预前任务的fMRI数据，以及先前在RD儿童和对照组中获得的相同类型的数据。在这个120人的样本中，我们将研究阅读、语音和数学技能的神经心理学测量与阅读和数学过程中的大脑活动之间的关系，这将使我们能够使用更广泛的连续体来测试上述数学、语言和大脑功能之间的关系。总之，这些目标通过解决数学学习，数学障碍，语言对数学的影响以及干预诱导的神经生物学可塑性直接符合FOA PA-12-248。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Math disability (MD) and reading disability (RD) have a significant negative impact at the individual and societal levels. Co-existence of the two (MD+RD) is an even greater challenge and presents an urgent problem for researchers and practitioners to address. The neural correlates of successful math and reading interventions in children with comorbid MD+RD are unknown, yet this knowledge would provide important insights into MD+RD and its remediation. We will investigate reading- and math-specific intervention-induced brain changes and test the hypothesis that reading and retrieval-based arithmetic, because verbally mediated, are both strengthened through reading intervention. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) methods employed in our prior studies, we propose to examine brain areas that subserve (i) reading, (ii) verbally mediated, retrieval- based arithmetic (addition of small numbers), and (iii) procedural-based arithmetic (subtraction). Forty-eight children with MD+RD will be studied prior to and following two periods of intensive tutoring: math followed by reading intervention, or vice versa. Following each intervention, we will examine reading and math performance via neuropsychological measures and brain-based changes (activity during reading and retrieval- based/procedural-based math tasks, resting state connectivity, and brain anatomy). Our first Aim is to test whether reading intervention brings about gains not only in reading (concomitant with left hemisphere increases in brain activity during reading), but also in math performance, and that these reading-intervention- induced changes in math also elicit increases during retrieval-based arithmetic in the same left hemisphere regions subserved by language. We also expect that math intervention results in gains on standardized and experimental measures of math along with increased brain activity, this time in right hemisphere parietal cortex during procedural-based arithmetic. As such, we will test the role of language mediation in the remediation of MD+RD by manipulating both the type of intervention and the fMRI tasks. We will employ analysis techniques that will allow us to assess brain-behavioral and brain-brain relationships prior to and following interventions. In our second Aim, we will test whether brain activity during reading and math tasks prior to the interventions predicts the improvements in reading and math skills, with the hypothesis that left inferior parietal cortex plays a critical role in signaling a verbally mediated "readiness" to maximally benefit from either intervention. In a third Aim, we will pool the fMRI data on tasks prior to the intervention with the same type of data previously acquired in children with RD and controls. In this sample of 120, we will examine relationships between neuropsychological measures of reading, phonological, and math skills, with brain activity during reading and math. This will allow us to test relationships described above between math, language, and brain function using a wider continuum. Together, these aims directly fit FOA PA-12-248 by addressing math learning, math disabilities, language influence on math, and intervention-induced neurobiological plasticity.