Artificial grammar learning as a tool to study the underlying deficits in dyslexia across development.

阅读困难症的特征是学习阅读和拼写的缺陷，人们认为这是由于语音处理方面的特殊困难造成的。然而，一些研究表明，阅读障碍的潜在缺陷可能是内隐学习的缺陷或序列加工的障碍，这与语言语法学习有关。因此，目前尚不清楚阅读障碍患者是否存在基本的顺序学习障碍(认知域一般缺陷)，或者缺陷是否主要局限于语音加工困难。该项目旨在理清这些相互矛盾的假设，并阐明阅读障碍的根本原因。它将使用新的人工语法范式开发行为内隐学习任务，以调查阅读困难患者和控制组参与者如何学习和处理不同复杂程度的人工语法，包括由语音刺激(无意义的单词)或非语言声音(如声调)组成的结构相同的序列。此外，在与成年人进行初步工作后，该项目将测试儿童，以了解这些能力的发展轨迹。最后一个部分将涉及功能磁共振扫描，以确定阅读障碍患者和对照组之间大脑区域功能的任何差异。这个项目的结果是促进了我们对阅读困难的性质的理解，以及参与序列处理的大脑区域网络可能会随着阅读障碍或发展过程中的变化而变化。

Dyslexia is characterised by deficits in learning to read and spell, thought to be caused by specific difficulties with phonological processing. However, some research hassuggests that the underlying deficits of dyslexia may be due to weaknesses in implicit learning or impairments in sequence processing, which is related to language grammar learning. Thus, it is not clear whether dyslexics have fundamental sequence learning impairments (a cognitive domain-general deficit) or if deficits are primarily restricted to phonological processing difficulties. The project aims to disentangle these competing hypotheses and shed light on the underlying causes of dyslexia. It will develop behavioural implicit learning tasks using novel artificial grammar paradigms to investigate how individuals with dyslexia and control participants learn and process artificial grammars of different levels of complexity, including structurally identical sequences consisting of either phonological stimuli (nonsense words) or non-linguistic sounds (e.g., tones). Moreover, after the initial work with adults the project will test children to understand the developmental trajectory of these abilities. The last component will involve fMRI scanning to identify any differences in the function of brain regions between individuals with dyslexia and controls. The outcome of this project is advancing our understanding on the nature of dyslexia, and how the network of brain areas involved in sequence processing might vary with dyslexiaseverity or change over the course of development.