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，这些技能是21世纪世纪学术和职业成功不可或缺的。扎实的数学基础知识不仅对STEM领域的成功至关重要，而且也是日常生活中的重要技能。计算能力差与健康、福祉和预期寿命的负面和代价高昂的结果有关，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，美国五分之一的成年人有功能性算术障碍。因此，对数学障碍儿童数学技能的干预具有重要意义。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，以及对数学技能差的补救。正如多个专家小组所强调的那样，迫切需要对帮助学生学习数学的干预机制进行研究。我们的建议旨在利用认知和系统神经科学方法，以及最先进的脑成像技术，扩展一个富有成效，创新和高影响力的研究领域，以研究MD儿童数学技能补救的机制。我们提出的研究与NIH项目公告“数学认知和推理的发展以及数学学习障碍的预防”（PA-12-248）的使命高度相关。基于我们最近的进展，在这次更新中，我们现在建议调查两种重要类型的干预措施的认知和大脑机制，这些干预措施针对MD儿童的不同弱点-快速练习辅导（SPT），其目标是流畅地检索数学事实，以及视觉空间数字辅导（VNT），其目标是数字，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MD儿童中与SPT和VNT相关的短期和长期学习，泛化（转移）和数学技能保留的大脑机制。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。对这两种学习形式的关键神经生物学研究将有助于阐明MD在多大程度上通过针对可分离脑系统中的可塑性的干预措施来补救-陈述性记忆系统，锚定在内侧颞叶和视觉空间注意系统，锚定在顶内沟。拟议的工作将提供重要的新的见解的神经生物学基础的数学学习的儿童与MD和他们的典型发展的同龄人。我们的研究结果不仅对告知MD的病因和补救措施具有重要意义，而且对确定数学学习的变异性来源具有重要意义，这些变异性对优化所有儿童的学习具有广泛的影响。

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.