Interventions in Math Learning Disabilities: Cognitive and Neural Correlates

描述(由申请人提供)：数学认知为技能的发展提供了基础，而技能是在21世纪取得学术和职业成功所不可或缺的。扎实的数学基础知识不仅是在STEM领域取得成功的关键，也是日常生活中的一项重要技能。算术能力差与健康、福祉和预期寿命的负面和代价高昂的结果相关，使其成为一个主要的公共卫生问题。数学困难在儿童、青少年甚至大学生中普遍存在，在美国，五分之一的成年人在功能上不懂数字。因此，纠正数学残疾儿童(MD)数学技能低下的干预措施具有重要意义。我们研究的长期目标是了解MD儿童数学学习的认知和大脑机制，以及纠正糟糕的数学技能。正如多个专家小组强调的那样，迫切需要研究干预措施背后的机制，以帮助数学困难的学生。我们的建议旨在利用认知和系统神经科学方法，结合最先进的脑成像技术，扩展一条富有成效、创新和高影响力的研究路线，以检查MD儿童数学技能补救的潜在机制。我们提出的研究与美国国立卫生研究院公布的“数学认知和推理的发展与数学学习障碍的预防”(PA-12-248)的任务高度相关。在我们最新进展的基础上，在这次更新中，我们现在建议调查两种重要干预类型背后的认知和大脑机制，这两种干预针对MD-Speeded Practice Tutoring(SPT)和Viso-Space Numbers Tutoring(VNT)儿童的不同弱点领域，SPT的目标是流利地检索数学事实，而视觉-空间数字辅导(VNT)的目标是数字、数量及其心理操作的视觉空间表征。我们将使用随机对照设计来比较这些不同的学习方法，并阐明与SPT和VNT相关的短期和长期学习、概括(迁移)和数学技能保持的大脑机制。我们的中心假设是，SPT和VNT将通过大脑可塑性的分离模式来修复MD儿童不同类型的数学缺陷。对这两种形式的学习进行关键的神经生物学研究，将有助于阐明针对可分离大脑系统的可塑性的干预措施在多大程度上补救MD--位于内侧颞叶的陈述性记忆系统和位于顶沟内的视觉空间注意系统。这项拟议的工作将为MD儿童及其典型发育同龄人的数学学习的神经生物学基础提供重要的新见解。我们的研究结果不仅对揭示MD的病因和补救措施具有重要意义，而且对于确定数学学习中的可变性来源也具有重要意义，并对优化所有儿童的学习产生广泛的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Mathematical cognition provides a foundation for the development of skills that are indispensable for academic and professional success in the 21st century. Strong foundational knowledge in math is critical not only for success in the STEM fields but also as an important skill in everyday life. Poor numeracy is associated with negative and costly outcomes for health, well-being and life expectancy, making it a major public health concern. Mathematical difficulties are widespread in children, adolescents and even college students, and one in five adults in the US is functionally innumerate. Interventions for remediating poor math skills in children with mathematical disabilities (MD) have therefore taken on great significance. The long-term goal of our research is to understand the cognitive and brain mechanisms underlying mathematical learning, and remediation of poor math skills, in children with MD. Research into the mechanisms underlying interventions for assisting students struggling with math is critically needed, as emphasized by multiple expert panels. Our proposal seeks to extend a productive, innovative and high-impact line of research using a cognitive and systems neuroscience approach, together with state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques, to examine the mechanisms underlying remediation of mathematical skills in children with MD. Our proposed studies are highly relevant to the mission of the NIH Program Announcement "Development of Mathematical Cognition and Reasoning and the Prevention of Math Learning Disabilities" (PA-12-248). Building on our recent progress, in this renewal we now propose to investigate the cognitive and brain mechanisms underlying two important types of interventions that target different areas of weaknesses in children with MD - speeded practice tutoring (SPT), which targets fluent retrieval of math facts, and visuo-spatial number tutoring (VNT), which targets visuo-spatial representations of numbers, quantity, and their mental manipulations. We will use a randomized control design to compare these distinct learning approaches, and elucidate the brain mechanisms underlying short- and long-term learning, generalization (transfer), and retention of math skills associated with SPT and VNT in children with MD. Our central hypothesis is that SPT and VNT will remediate different types of math deficits in children with MD via dissociable patterns of brain plasticity. A critical neurobiological investigation of these two forms of learning will help elucidate the extent to which MD is remediated by interventions that target plasticity in dissociable brain systems - the declarative memory system, anchored in the medial temporal lobe and the visuo-spatial attention system, anchored in the intra- parietal sulcus. The proposed work will provide important new insights into the neurobiological basis of mathematical learning in children with MD and their typically developing peers. Findings from our study have major implications not only for informing the etiology and the remediation of MD but also for determining sources of variability in mathematical learning with broad consequences for optimizing learning in all children.