Reading Disorder
Conditions
Brief summary
Developmental dyslexia affects 7% of school-age children (Male:Female ratio of 1.5:1) and incurs disadvantages in education and occupation. Scientific progress concerning the etiology of developmental dyslexia evidenced the complex gene-environment interaction. The DCDC2-READ1 deletion associates with reading skills and affects the magnocellular-dorsal stream in humans and animals. DCDC2 modifies neural activity within the excitatory pathways. The magnocellular-dorsal stream mediates the function of the attention network. Difficulties in spatial and temporal attention shifting impair letter-to-speech sound integration increasing neural noise. Action video games improve the efficiency of the magnocellular-dorsal stream. The aim of this cutting-edge, round trip translation study is threefold: 1.to unravel new insights behind the pathophysiology of developmental dyslexia, 2. to assess gene-environment interaction effects on developmental dyslexia endophenotypes, and 3. to identify useful clues to foster the identification of new, personalized treatments.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALAction Video-Game
Thanks to their specific characteristics (presentation of multiple peripheral, rapidly moving, spatio-temporally unpredictable stimuli), Action Video-Games improve reading skills through their effects on the Magnocellular-Dorsal stream. Training will consist of 20 days of Action Video-Games sessions of 1 hour each, three times per week.
Sponsors
Università degli studi di Bergamo
IRCCS Eugenio Medea
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
5 Years to 6 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* 5-years old pre-readers, * normal intelligence quotient, * no main counter indications for magnetic resonance acquisition, * no previous diagnosis of any neurodevelopmental disorders.
Exclusion criteria
* intelligence quotient below the average range, * presence of counter indications for magnetic resonance acquisition, * previous diagnosis of any neurodevelopmental disorders.
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Short-term memory | 3 years | Short-term memory - assessed by the Single Digit Forward Span, Single Digit Backward Span. Measures obtained: Z scores age-corrected. |
| Phonological awareness | 3 years | Phonological awareness - assessed by the nonword repetition test. Measures obtained: Z scores age-corrected. |
| Rapid automatized naming | 3 years | Rapid automatized naming - assessed by the RAN test. Measures obtained: Z scores age-corrected. |
| Reading skills | 3 years | Reading skills - assessed by single unrelated words and pseudo-words reading tests. Measures obtained: Z scores age-corrected. |
| Visual attention | 3 years | Visual attention - assessed by a computer-based visual attention task |
| Visual motion processing | 3 years | Visual motion processing - assessed by Coherent dot motion task |
| measurement of neurotransmitters | 3 years | in vivo measures of neurotransmitters including glutamate and gamma-Aminobutyric acid magnetic resonance spectroscopy |
Countries
Italy
Contacts
Primary ContactSara Mascheretti
Outcome results
None listed