computer games improving reading and brain function in ...€¦ · dyslexia a major deficit causing...
TRANSCRIPT
Computer games improving
reading and brain function in
dyslexia
Teija Kujala
Cognitive Brain Research Unit
Institute of Behavioural Sciences
University of Helsinki
Finland
II World Dyslexia Forum,
Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2014
Dyslexia
A major deficit causing learning problems
Prevalence estimates range from 5 to 17% (Shaywitz, New Engl. J. Med.)
Modern individuals need extensively reading skills severe consequences from dyslexia
Leading theory on the main cause of dyslexia: an impairment related to phonological processing (e.g., Ramus, Trends Neurosci., 2004)
Support from brain research for weak speech/sound representations in dyslexia
Brain research on dyslexia:
structure and functional areas
Structural abnormalities in
dyslexia: left perisylvian areas,
thalamus, corpus callosum,
cerebellum; A: ectopias in
different dyslexic individuals
(G.D. Rosen)
B: structural differences
between dyslexic and non-
dyslexic individuals in areas
activated during oral language
tasks
B
A
Ramus, Trends Neurosci., 2004
Brain research on dyslexia:
neurophysiology
A neural response for
investigating perisylvian and
frontal areas: the mismatch
negativity (MMN)
Reflects sound discrimination
accuracy at preattentive stage of
processing
Partly distinct sources for speech
and non-speech sounds
B: Pulvermüller & Shtyrov, Progr.
Neurobiol., 2006; C: Molholm et
al., Cer. Cor., 2005
A
B C
Auditory discrimination deficit in
dyslexia
Low-level neural sound discrimination and
attentive sound-change detection in adults with
dyslexia (Baldeweg et al., Annals Neurol., 1999)
Mismatch negativity (MMN) recordings during a
visual task
Attentive discrimination of deviant tones
Frequency and duration changes in sound
sequences
Sound pitch and duration
discrimination in dyslexia
Diminished MMNs for frequency but not for duration changes in dyslexic adults
Also poorer attentive discrimination of frequency but not of duration changes
A correlation between reading errors and MMN + pitch discrimination
Neural speech processing in children
at risk for dyslexia MMN recording for speech sound changes in 6-
year-old children
At-risk participants:
Mother or father + an additional close relative
with dyslexia
Poor performance in reading-related tests
(phonological processing, pseudoword
repetition, reading fluency, reading and writing
syllables and pseudowords, rapid alternating
naming, digit span)
Matched children with typical development
Neural speech processing in
infants at risk for dyslexia
Comparison of neural functions in 6-month-old
infants with vs. without familial risk for dyslexia
(Leppänen et al., Dev. Neuropsychol., 2002)
MMNs were recorded for consonant duration
changes in pseudowords
A fundamental speech learning
dysfunction in dyslexia?
Recent evidence: rapid and automatic neural speech learning (Shtyrov et al., J. Neurosci., 2010)
A prerequisite for efficient language processing and learning?
Speech memory trace formation in normal-reading vs. dyslexic 9-12 year old children (Kimppa et al., in preparation):
Pseudoword stimuli were presented while children watched a movie
Responses for the first 25% and last 25% of the stimuli were compared
Speech memory trace development
Predicting future reading abilities
from low-level neural responses
5-year follow-up study: does MMN predict future
reading skills? (Maurer et al., Biol. Psychiatry, 2009)
MMNs recorded for phoneme and tone changes in
kindergarten from children with or without familial
risk for dyslexia
Reading skills tested at school
Neural activity predicts future
reading abilities
Phoneme-change elicited MMN predicted future
reading skills: stronger left-ward lateralization in
children who became better readers at school
Maurer et al., Biol.
Psychiatry, 2009
Effects of intervention on dyslexia
and brain function
An important area of research:
Optimization of means to alleviate
dyslexia
Helps to understand the
mechanisms underlying dyslexia
Auditory-linguistic training
Reading- and language-skill measures and
fMRI in 8-12 –year old dyslexic and control
children (Temple et al., 2003)
Dyslexic children: exercises designed to
improve auditory and language processing
(Fast ForWord Language); 100 min./day, 5
days/week, 28 days
Before and after intervention:
Reading ability and language tests
fMRI scans during phonological tasks
Results from reading-skill tests
Temple et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 2003
Functional imaging results
Temple et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 2003
Audiovisual non-linguistic
intervention and MMN
Audio-visual training program (Audilex, Prof. K. Karma) with no linguistic items
Pupils in their first Spring semester with reading impairment two matched groups
We studied:
reading skills
MMN to tone-order reversals
behavioral discrimination of tone-order reversals
Tests: in the beginning and end of Spring semester; the training group played the computer game for 7 weeks (twice a week for 10-15 min.)
Kujala / CBRU
Can we prevent reading problems?
Slow reading-skill acquisition leads to learning and
motivational problems, which further prohibit
achievements at school
Early intervention would be the most effective
prevention of these problems
Training pre-schoolers at risk for
dyslexia Effects of grapheme-speech sound
association training
3 hours of training in brief sessions:
Training group: matching speech
sounds with letters (Graphogame;
Prof. H. Lyytinen)
Control group: mathematical
exercises
Comparison and follow up of:
Pre-reading skills
MMN responses for speech-
sound changes
Competitor’
Player’s
catcher
Falling
letters
Correctl
y chosen
letters
Player’s
results
Competitor’s
results
Mouse
pointer
Intervention effects on pre-
schoolers at risk for dyslexia
Lovio et al., Brain Res., 2012
Do the training effects persist?
A follow-up of 7-year old Finnish school beginners
until the 3rd grade (Saine et al., Child Dev., 2011)
Children at risk for dyslexia:
Remedial Reading Intevention (RRI; 45 min.
sessions)
Computer Assisted Remedial Reading
Intervention (CARRI; (45 min. Sessions of which
GraphoGame training 15 min.)
Children without dyslexia risk: control group
Training period: 1st grade, October-April, 28
weeks
Letter knowledge
Change from August
(baseline assessment) to April
in Grade 1
CARRI group progressed
faster than RRI group
Saine et al., Child Dev., 2011
Spelling
Post-test right after
intervention (Grade 1, May):
CARRI group better than RRI
group; both worse than the
control group
Assessment 16 months after
the end of intervention: RRI
group worse than CARRI and
control groups; no difference
between CARRI and control
groups Saine et al., Child Dev., 2011
Reading accuracy
1st assessment (Grade 1,
January): the training
groups differed from the
control but not from each
others
2nd assessment (Grade 3)
16 months after the end of
intervention: CARRI and
control groups better than
RRI group
Saine et al., Child Dev., 2011
Conclusions
Reading deficits are associated with a wide-
spread pattern of auditory impairments
MMN predicts future reading abilities
Both linguistic and non-linguistic intervention can
alleviate reading impairments
Several brain modules contributing to reading
are affected
Reading-related skills can be improved even
before school age
The training effects can be persistent
Thanks to main collaborators and
colleagues involved
Prof. Mari Tervaniemi, Ms. Lilli Kimppa CBRU, Dept. Psychol. Univ. Helsinki, Finland
Prof. Risto Näätänen Dept. Psychology, Univ. Tarto; CFIN, Univ. Aarhus; CBRU,
Dept. Psychol. Univ. Helsinki, Finland
Dr. Riikka Lovio
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Swerige
Prof. Heikki Lyytinen
Dept. Psychology, Univ. Jyväskylä, Finland
Prof. Paavo Alku
Laboratory of Acoustics and Audio Signal Processing, Aalto Univ., Finland
Prof. Kai Karma
Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, Finland
Greetings from the Neuroplasticity of
Language Group (NeoLanG) from Helsinki,
Finland!