Using Cognitive Neuroscience to Predict Dyslexia among Kindergarden Children

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究的长期目标是了解发展性阅读障碍的大脑基础，这是最常见的特殊学习障碍之一，并推进阅读障碍的早期识别，以便早期干预可以最大限度地减少阅读障碍对学生成绩，自我感知和长期生活结果的负面影响。阅读障碍通常是由于语音意识的缺陷（操纵语言语音的能力）导致的，这种缺陷先于并损害了阅读学习，但这种缺陷的潜在原因尚未确定。神经成像方法，包括事件相关电位（ERPs）、功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）和弥散张量成像（DTI），已经确定了阅读障碍儿童的大脑差异。然而，几乎所有这些研究都涉及年龄较大的儿童，他们表现出阅读障碍，因此有两个基本问题仍未得到解答。首先，是什么大脑差异导致了阅读障碍（即，在一年级阅读指导之前的5岁幼儿园儿童中存在）？第二，大脑测量能显著提高我们预测哪些在幼儿园有阅读障碍风险的学龄前儿童在二年级时实际上会成为阅读障碍的能力吗？为了回答这些问题，我们提出了一项纵向研究，包括：(1)筛选1000名学龄前幼儿园儿童，确定120名有阅读障碍风险的儿童和60名无风险的儿童；(2)对180名学龄前儿童进行MRI、fMRI、DTI和ERP实验，以确定有阅读障碍风险与无阅读障碍风险儿童的大脑差异；(3)纵向跟踪这些儿童的语言和阅读发展，以发现哪些有风险的儿童在二年级结束时实际进展为阅读障碍；(4)运用各种统计方法，包括多元统计方法，提高学龄前儿童可被识别为真正存在阅读障碍风险的准确性。这项研究的新颖之处在于其对幼儿的多模态成像，纵向随访，以及发展方法来准确识别具有阅读障碍真正风险的幼儿，从而为这些儿童提供早期干预，以最大限度地减少他们的学习困难。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long-term objective of this research is to understand the brain basis of developmental dyslexia, one of the most common specific learning disabilities, and to advance early identification of dyslexia so that early intervention can minimize the documented negative influence of dyslexia on student achievement, self-perception, and long-term life outcomes. Dyslexia typically results from a deficit in phonological awareness (the ability to manipulate speech sounds of language) that precedes and impairs learning to read, but the underlying cause of this deficit has not yet been determined. Neuroimaging methods, including event-related potentials (ERPs), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), have identified brain differences in children with dyslexia. Nearly all of these studies, however, involve older children with demonstrated reading failure, so two essential questions remain unanswered. First, what brain differences lead to dyslexia (i.e., are present in 5-year-old kindergartners prior to reading instruction in the 1st grade)? Second, can brain measures significantly enhance our ability to predict which pre- reading children at risk for dyslexia in kindergarten actually go on to become dyslexic by second grade? To answer these questions, we propose a longitudinal study that involves (1) screening 1000 pre-reading kindergartners to identify 120 children at risk for dyslexia and 60 children not at risk; (2) perform MRI, fMRI, DTI, and ERP experiments in these 180 kindergartners to identify brain differences in children with versus without risk for dyslexia; (3) longitudinally follow the language and reading development of these children to discover which at-risk children actually progress to dyslexia at the end of 2nd grade; and (4) use various statistical methods, including multivariate statistics, to improve the accuracy with pre-reading kindergartners can be identified as being at true risk for dyslexia. This study is novel in its multimodal imaging with young children, its longitudinal follow-up, and its translational health aim of developing methods to accurately identify young children at true risk for dyslexia so that such children can be offered early intervention to minimize their learning difficulties. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: There is public health concern about developmental dyslexia, the most common specific learning deficit in children (5-17% of children), and that is associated with poor educational outcomes in children. The proposed research uses state-of-the-art brain measures to identify the brain basis of dyslexia, and to enhance early identification of dyslexia that can lead to early intervention, which is known to be most effective for children.