CAREER: Longitudinal Development of Numerical Processing Brain Networks in Developmental Dyscalculia: A Neuroimaging Study from Kindergarten to Second Grade

大约6%的美国人患有数学学习障碍，发展性计算障碍（DD），面临学业困难，就业减少，精神和身体疾病增加，以及更高的逮捕和监禁率。尽管有潜在的后果，但目前还没有关于DD的大脑和行为原因的共识。该项目团队将试图描述从幼儿园到二年级DD儿童负责处理符号和非符号数字的大脑机制的发展和相互作用，希望了解这种疾病的根本原因将有助于开发有效的诊断和补救工具进行教育干预。他们将从事神经科学和行为研究的结合，以消除相互竞争的因果理论之间的歧义，这些理论不太可能仅根据行为证据来区分。该项目由EHR核心研究（ECR）计划授予范德比尔特大学的CAREER奖支持，该计划支持推进STEM学习基础研究文献的工作。关于DD根本原因的竞争理论表明，无论是在数字大小的表示方面，还是在这些表示与符号数字之间的联系方面，都存在缺陷。该项目将试图消除这些理论之间的歧义，通过提供一个多模态的表征神经网络参与基本的非符号和符号的数字处理在DD儿童使用功能性磁共振成像（fMRI），以及灰色和白色物质的结构指标。该项目将研究这些网络的发展，并将研究这些网络预测典型和非典型数学技能发展的程度。研究人员将研究儿童与DD，儿童与阅读障碍（DL），和典型的发展（TD）儿童纵向从幼儿园到二年级。通过这三组之间的对比，研究人员将能够识别特定于DD的非典型大脑和行为表型，以及识别DD和DL之间的任何共性。每年，参与者将在功能磁共振成像扫描仪中完成一系列符号和非符号数字处理任务，以及一系列测量数学技能和一般认知能力的行为测试。每年还将收集大脑结构的测量结果，使研究人员能够评估功能性大脑激活，功能和结构连接，以及它们与行为和彼此之间的关系。在研究项目结束时，研究团队将提供证据支持DD基础数字处理中核心神经功能异常的特征，确定DD中数字幅度处理的结构脑完整性和功能神经机制之间的关系，并探讨从幼儿园到幼儿园的DD儿童的异常数字加工脑机制与数学成绩之间的因果发展关系。二级。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Approximately 6% of Americans suffer from the mathematical learning disability developmental dyscalculia (DD), facing academic difficulties, reduced employment, increased mental and physical illness, and higher rates of arrest and incarceration. Despite the potential consequences, no consensus currently exists regarding the brain and behavioral causes of DD. The project team will attempt to characterize the development of and interaction between brain mechanisms responsible for processing symbolic and nonsymbolic numbers in children from kindergarten through 2nd grade with DD, with the hope that understanding the root causes of the disorder will aid the development of effective diagnostic and remedial tools for educational interventions. They will engage in a combination of neuroscientific and behavioral research in order to disambiguate between competing causal theories that are unlikely to be distinguished on the basis of behavioral evidence alone. The project is supported by a CAREER award to Vanderbilt University by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances the fundamental research literature on STEM learning.Competing theories of the underlying cause of DD suggest that there is a deficit either in the representation of numerical magnitude, or in the connection between those representations and symbolic numbers. The project will attempt to disambiguate between these theories by providing a multimodal characterization of the neural networks involved in basic nonsymbolic and symbolic number processing in DD children using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), as well as structural metrics of grey and white matter. The project will examine the development of those networks and will examine the extent to which those networks predict typical and atypical mathematical skill development. Investigators will study children with DD, children with dyslexia (DL), and typically developing (TD) children longitudinally from kindergarten to 2nd grade. By contrasting between these three groups, the investigators will be able to identify atypical brain and behavioral phenotypes that are specific to DD, as well as identify any commonalities between DD and DL. In each year, participants will complete a battery of symbolic and nonsymbolic number processing tasks in the fMRI scanner, in addition to a battery of behavioral tests measuring mathematics skills and general cognitive abilities. Measures of brain structure will also be collected in each year, allowing investigators to assess functional brain activation, functional and structural connectivity, and their relation to behavior and to each other. At the conclusion of the research project, the research team will provide evidence supporting a characterization of the core neurofunctional abnormalities in basic number processing underlying DD, identify the relationships between structural brain integrity and functional neural mechanisms underlying numerical magnitude processing in DD, and explore the causal developmental relationships beween aberrant number processing brain mechanisms and math outcomes in DD from kindergarten through 2nd grade.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.