Do early musical impairments predict later reading difficulties? A longitudinal study of pre-readers with and without familial risk for dyslexia.

The present longitudinal study investigated the hypothesis that early musical skills (as measured by melodic and rhythmic perception and memory) predict later literacy development via a mediating effect of phonology. We examined 130 French-speaking children, 31 of whom with a familial risk for developmental dyslexia (DD). Their abilities in the three domains were assessed longitudinally with a comprehensive battery of behavioral tests in kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.

Characterizing the phenotypic and genetic structure of psychopathology in UK Biobank.

Mental conditions exhibit a higher-order transdiagnostic factor structure which helps to explain the widespread comorbidity observed in psychopathology. However, the phenotypic and genetic structures of psychopathology may differ, raising questions about the validity and utility of these factors. Here, we study the phenotypic and genetic factor structures of ten psychiatric conditions using UK Biobank and public genomic data.

Cognitive traits are more appropriate for genetic analysis than social outcomes.

The critique of the genetics of complex social outcomes is partly well-founded, insofar as social outcomes sometimes have unreliable relations with cognitive traits. But the correct conclusion is not to dismiss the entire field altogether. Rather, the implication is to redirect geneticists' attention to the stable cognitive phenotypes that are natural candidates for genetic analysis.

Adaptive compensation of arcuate fasciculus lateralization in developmental dyslexia.

Previous studies have reported anomalies in the arcuate fasciculus (AF) lateralization in developmental dyslexia (DD). Still, the relationship between AF lateralization and literacy skills in DD remains largely unknown. The purpose of our study is to investigate the relationship between lateralization of three segments of AF (AF anterior segment (AFAS), AF long segment (AFLS), and AF posterior segment (AFPS)) and literacy skills in DD.

Prenatal and childhood exposure to ambient air pollution and cognitive function in school-age children: Examining sensitive windows and sex-specific associations.

Background: Combined effect of both prenatal and early postnatal exposure to ambient air pollution on child cognition has rarely been investigated and periods of sensitivity are unknown. This study explores the temporal relationship between pre- and postnatal exposure to PM, PM, NO and child cognitive function.

Methods: Using validated spatiotemporally resolved exposure models, pre- and postnatal daily PM, PM (satellite based, 1 km resolution) and NO (chemistry-transport model, 4 km resolution) concentrations at the mother's residence were estimated for 1271 mother-child pairs from the French EDEN and PELAGIE cohorts.

Brain volumes, thicknesses, and surface areas as mediators of genetic factors and childhood adversity on intelligence.

Although genetic and environmental factors influence general intelligence (g-factor), few studies examined the neuroanatomical measures mediating environmental and genetic effects on intelligence. Here, we investigate the brain volumes, cortical mean thicknesses, and cortical surface areas mediating the effects of the g-factor polygenic score (gPGS) and childhood adversity on the g-factor in the UK Biobank. We first examined the global and regional brain measures that contribute to the g-factor.

The influence of sibship composition on language development at 2 years of age in the ELFE birth cohort study.

The number of older siblings a child has is negatively correlated with the child's verbal skills, an effect that is well known in the literature. However, few studies have examined the effect of older siblings' sex, of the age gap between siblings, of having foreign-speaking parents, as well as the mediating role of parental interaction. Using data from 12,296 children (49.

High intelligence is not associated with a greater propensity for mental health disorders.

Background: Studies reporting that highly intelligent individuals have more mental health disorders often have sampling bias, no or inadequate control groups, or insufficient sample size. We addressed these caveats by examining the difference in the prevalence of mental health disorders between individuals with high and average general intelligence (-factor) in the UK Biobank.

Methods: Participants with -factor scores standardized relative to the same-age UK population, were divided into two groups: a high -factor group (-factor 2 SD above the UK mean;  = 16,137) and an average -factor group (-factor within 2 SD of the UK mean;  = 236,273).

A General Cognitive Ability Factor for the UK Biobank.

UK Biobank participants do not have a high-quality measure of intelligence or polygenic scores (PGSs) of intelligence to simultaneously examine the genetic and neural underpinnings of intelligence. We created a standardized measure of general intelligence (g factor) relative to the UK population and estimated its quality. After running a GWAS of g on UK Biobank participants with a g factor of good quality and without neuroimaging data (N = 187,288), we derived a g PGS for UK Biobank participants with neuroimaging data.

White matter connectivity in uncinate fasciculus accounts for visual attention span in developmental dyslexia.

The present study aimed to investigate the role of connectivity disruptions in two fiber pathways, the uncinate fasciculus (UF) and the frontal aslant tract (FAT), in developmental dyslexia and determine the relationship between the connectivity of these pathways and behavioral performance in children with dyslexia. A total of 26 French children with dyslexia and 31 age-matched control children were included. Spherical deconvolution tractography was used to reconstruct the two fiber pathways.

Preschool language and visuospatial skills respectively predict multiplication and addition/subtraction skills in middle school children.

A converging body of evidence from neuroimaging, behavioral, and neuropsychology studies suggests that different arithmetic operations rely on distinct neuro-cognitive processes: while addition and subtraction may rely more on visuospatial reasoning, multiplication would depend more on verbal abilities. In this paper, we tested this hypothesis in a longitudinal study measuring language and visuospatial skills in 358 preschoolers, and testing their mental calculation skills at the beginning of middle school. Language skills at 5.

Neural dissociation of visual attention span and phonological deficits in developmental dyslexia: A hub-based white matter network analysis.

It has been suggested that developmental dyslexia may have two dissociable causes-a phonological deficit and a visual attention span (VAS) deficit. Yet, neural evidence for such a dissociation is still lacking. This study adopted a data-driven approach to white matter network analysis to explore hubs and hub-related networks corresponding to VAS and phonological accuracy in a group of French dyslexic children aged from 9 to 14 years.

Comparing brain asymmetries independently of brain size.

Studies examining cerebral asymmetries typically divide the l-R Measure (e.g., Left-Right Volume) by the L + R Measure to obtain an Asymmetry Index (AI).

Maladaptive compensation of right fusiform gyrus in developmental dyslexia: A hub-based white matter network analysis.

Cognitive theories have been proposed to clarify the causes and symptoms of dyslexia. However, correlations between local network parameters of white matter connectivity and literacy skills remain poorly known. An unbiased hypothesis-free approach was adopted to examine the correlations between literacy symptoms (reading and spelling) and hub-based white matter networks' connectivity parameters [nodal degree fractional anisotropy (FA) values] of 90 brain regions based on Anatomical Atlas Labels (AAL) in a group of French children with dyslexia aged 9-14 years.

Sex differences in the brain are not reduced to differences in body size.

In their comprehensive review of sex differences in the brain, Eliot et al. (2021) conclude that (1) men and women significantly differ in global brain size, but this "mostly parallels the divergence of male/female body size during development" and that (2) "once we account for individual differences in brain size, there is almost no difference in the volume of specific cortical or subcortical structures between men and women". In sum, almost all brain differences would directly or indirectly follow from differences in body size.

Neuroanatomical norms in the UK Biobank: The impact of allometric scaling, sex, and age.

Few neuroimaging studies are sufficiently large to adequately describe population-wide variations. This study's primary aim was to generate neuroanatomical norms and individual markers that consider age, sex, and brain size, from 629 cerebral measures in the UK Biobank (N = 40,028). The secondary aim was to examine the effects and interactions of sex, age, and brain allometry-the nonlinear scaling relationship between a region and brain size (e.

The epidemiology of cognitive development.

The epidemiology of cognitive development is an approach essentially based on large observational studies, which examines individual differences in cognitive abilities throughout childhood and their determinants. Although different in terms of methodology and main interests from developmental psychology, cognitive epidemiology offers complementary viewpoints on cognitive development and addresses fundamental research questions of interest to developmental psychologists. The present paper depicts the contributions of the epidemiological approach to the field of cognitive development and highlights the methodological advances that have made such contributions possible.

Neural entrainment to speech and nonspeech in dyslexia: Conceptual replication and extension of previous investigations.

Whether phonological deficits in developmental dyslexia are associated with impaired neural sampling of auditory information is still under debate. Previous findings suggested that dyslexic participants showed atypical neural entrainment to slow and/or fast temporal modulations in speech, which might affect prosodic/syllabic and phonemic processing respectively. However, the large methodological variations across these studies do not allow us to draw clear conclusions on the nature of the entrainment deficit in dyslexia.

A universal reading network and its modulation by writing system and reading ability in French and Chinese children.

Are the brain mechanisms of reading acquisition similar across writing systems? And do similar brain anomalies underlie reading difficulties in alphabetic and ideographic reading systems? In a cross-cultural paradigm, we measured the fMRI responses to words, faces, and houses in 96 Chinese and French 10-year-old children, half of whom were struggling with reading. We observed a reading circuit which was strikingly similar across languages and consisting of the left fusiform gyrus, superior temporal gyrus/sulcus, precentral and middle frontal gyri. Activations in some of these areas were modulated either by language or by reading ability, but without interaction between those factors.

Risk of early neurodevelopmental disorders associated with in utero exposure to valproate and other antiepileptic drugs: a nationwide cohort study in France.

Information available on the risks of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDs) associated with in utero exposure to valproate (VPA) and to other antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) is limited. A nationwide population-based cohort study was conducted based on comprehensive data of the French National Health Data System (SNDS). Liveborn infants without brain malformation, born between January 2011 and December 2014, were followed from birth up to December 2016.