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1. Neurocognitive mechanisms of co‐occurring math difficulties in dyslexia: Differences in executive function and visuospatial processing

   https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13443  

   Marks, Rebecca A. ; Pollack, Courtney ; Meisler, Steven L. ; D'Mello, Anila M. ; Centanni, Tracy M. ; Romeo, Rachel R. ; Wade, Karolina ; Matejko, Anna A. ; Ansari, Daniel ; Gabrieli, John D. E. ; et al ( September 2023 , Developmental Science)

   Children with dyslexia frequently also struggle with math. However, studies of reading disability (RD) rarely assess math skill, and the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying co‐occurring reading and math disability (RD+MD) are not clear. The current study aimed to identify behavioral and neurocognitive factors associated with co‐occurring MD among 86 children with RD. Within this sample, 43% had co‐occurring RD+MD and 22% demonstrated a possible vulnerability in math, while 35% had no math difficulties (RD‐Only). We investigated whether RD‐Only and RD+MD students differed behaviorally in their phonological awareness, reading skills, or executive functions, as well as in the brain mechanisms underlying word reading and visuospatial working memory using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The RD+MD group did not differ from RD‐Only on behavioral or brain measures of phonological awareness related to speech or print. However, the RD+MD group demonstrated significantly worse working memory and processing speed performance than the RD‐Only group. The RD+MD group also exhibited reduced brain activations for visuospatial working memory relative to RD‐Only. Exploratory brain‐behavior correlations along a broad spectrum of math ability revealed that stronger math skills were associated with greater activation in bilateral visual cortex. These converging neuro‐behavioral findings suggest that poor executive functions in general, including differences in visuospatial working memory, are specifically associated with co‐occurring MD in the context of RD.

   Children with reading disabilities (RD) frequently have a co‐occurring math disability (MD), but the mechanisms behind this high comorbidity are not well understood.

   We examined differences in phonological awareness, reading skills, and executive function between children with RD only versus co‐occurring RD+MD using behavioral and fMRI measures.

   Children with RD only versus RD+MD did not differ in their phonological processing, either behaviorally or in the brain.

   RD+MD was associated with additional behavioral difficulties in working memory, and reduced visual cortex activation during a visuospatial working memory task.

    

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2. Augmenting ideational fluency in a creativity task across multiple transcranial direct current stimulation montages

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-85804-3  

   Chrysikou, Evangelia G. ; Morrow, Hannah M. ; Flohrschutz, Austin ; Denney, Lauryn ( December 2021 , Scientific Reports)

   null (Ed.)

   Abstract Neuroimaging and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) research has revealed that generating novel ideas is associated with both reductions and increases in prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity, and engagement of posterior occipital cortex, among other regions. However, there is substantial variability in the robustness of these tDCS‐induced effects due to heterogeneous sample sizes, different creativity measures, and methodological diversity in the application of tDCS across laboratories. To address these shortcomings, we used twelve different montages within a standardized tDCS protocol to investigate how altering activity in frontotemporal and occipital cortex impacts creative thinking. Across four experiments, 246 participants generated either the common or an uncommon use for 60 object pictures while undergoing tDCS. Participants also completed a control short-term memory task. We applied active tDCS for 20 min at 1.5 mA through two 5 cm × 5 cm electrodes over left or right ventrolateral prefrontal (areas F7, F8) or occipital (areas O1, O2) cortex, concurrent bilateral stimulation of these regions across polarities, or sham stimulation. Cathodal stimulation of the left, but not right, ventrolateral PFC improved fluency in creative idea generation, but had no effects on originality, as approximated by measures of semantic distance. No effects were obtained for the control tasks. Concurrent bilateral stimulation of the ventrolateral PFC regardless of polarity direction, and excitatory stimulation of occipital cortex did not alter task performance. Highlighting the importance of cross-experimental methodological consistency, these results extend our past findings and contribute to our understanding of the role of left PFC in creative thinking. 

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3. Multielectrode Transcranial Electrical Stimulation of the Left and Right Prefrontal Cortices Differentially Impacts Verbal Working Memory Neural Circuitry

   https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz246  

   Koshy, Sam M. ; Wiesman, Alex I. ; Spooner, Rachel K. ; Embury, Christine ; Rezich, Michael T. ; Heinrichs-Graham, Elizabeth ; Wilson, Tony W. ( December 2019 , Cerebral Cortex)

   Recent studies have examined the effects of conventional transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on working memory (WM) performance, but this method has relatively low spatial precision and generally involves a reference electrode that complicates interpretation. Herein, we report a repeated-measures crossover study of 25 healthy adults who underwent multielectrode tDCS of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), right DLPFC, or sham in 3 separate visits. Shortly after each stimulation session, participants performed a verbal WM (VWM) task during magnetoencephalography, and the resulting data were examined in the time–frequency domain and imaged using a beamformer. We found that after left DLPFC stimulation, participants exhibited stronger responses across a network of left-lateralized cortical areas, including the supramarginal gyrus, prefrontal cortex, inferior frontal gyrus, and cuneus, as well as the right hemispheric homologues of these regions. Importantly, these effects were specific to the alpha-band, which has been previously implicated in VWM processing. Although stimulation condition did not significantly affect performance, stepwise regression revealed a relationship between reaction time and response amplitude in the left precuneus and supramarginal gyrus. These findings suggest that multielectrode tDCS targeting the left DLPFC affects the neural dynamics underlying offline VWM processing, including utilization of a more extensive bilateral cortical network.

    

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4. How the use of concept maps changes students’ minds and brains.

   Shealy, T. ; Gero, J. ; Ignacio Jr, P. ( July 2022 , ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   The research presented in this paper tested whether drawing concept maps changes how engineering students construct design problem statements and whether these differences are observable in their brains. The process of identifying and constructing problem statements is a critical step in engineering design. Concept mapping has the potential to expand the problem space that students explore through the attention given to the relationship between concepts. It helps integrate existing knowledge in new ways. Engineering students (n=66) were asked to construct a problem statement to improve mobility on campus. Half of these students were randomly chosen to first receive instructions about how to develop a concept map and were asked to draw a concept map about mobility systems on campus. The semantic similarity of concepts in the students’ problem statements, the length of their problem statements, and their neurocognition when developing their statements were measured. The results indicated that students who were asked to first draw concept maps produced a more diverse problem statement with less semantically similar words. The students who first developed concept maps also produce significantly longer problem statements. Concept mapping changed students’ neurocognition. The students who used concept mapping elicited less cognitive activation in their left prefrontal cortex (PFC) and more concentrated activation in their right PFC. The right PFC is generally associated with divergent thinking and the left PFC is generally associated with convergent and analytical thinking. These results provide new insight into how educational interventions, like concept mapping, can change students’ cognition and neurocognition. Better understanding how concept maps, and other tools, help students approach complex problems and the associated changes that occur in their brain can lay the groundwork for novel advances in engineering education that support new tools and pedagogy development for design. 

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5. Gray matter volume associations in youth with ADHD features of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity

   https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26589  

   Reimann, Gabrielle E. ; Jeong, Hee Jung ; Durham, E. Leighton ; Archer, Camille ; Moore, Tyler M. ; Berhe, Fanual ; Dupont, Randolph M. ; Kaczkurkin, Antonia N. ( March 2024 , Human Brain Mapping)

   Prior research has shown smaller cortical and subcortical gray matter volumes among individuals with attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, neuroimaging studies often do not differentiate between inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity, which are distinct core features of ADHD. The present study uses an approach to disentangle overlapping variance to examine the neurostructural heterogeneity of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity dimensions.

   We analyzed data from 10,692 9‐ to 10‐year‐old children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to derive factors representing inattentive and hyperactive/impulsive traits. We employed structural equation modeling to examine these factors' associations with gray matter volume while controlling for the shared variance between factors.

   Greater endorsement of inattentive traits was associated with smaller bilateral caudal anterior cingulate and left parahippocampal volumes. Greater endorsement of hyperactivity/impulsivity traits was associated with smaller bilateral caudate and left parahippocampal volumes. The results were similar when accounting for socioeconomic status, medication, and in‐scanner motion. The magnitude of these findings increased when accounting for overall volume and intracranial volume, supporting a focal effect in our results.

   Inattentive and hyperactivity/impulsivity traits show common volume deficits in regions associated with visuospatial processing and memory while at the same time showing dissociable differences, with inattention showing differences in areas associated with attention and emotion regulation and hyperactivity/impulsivity associated with volume differences in motor activity regions. Uncovering such biological underpinnings within the broader disorder of ADHD allows us to refine our understanding of ADHD presentations.

    

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