Cognitive correlates of mathematical achievement in children with cerebral palsy and typically developing children.

Background: Remarkably few studies have investigated the nature and origin of learning difficulties in children with cerebral palsy (CP).

Aims: To investigate math achievement in terms of word-problem solving ability in children with CP and controls. Because of the potential importance of reading for word-problem solving, we investigated reading as well.

High disease impact of myotonic dystrophy type 2 on physical and mental functioning.

The aim of the study was to investigate health status in patients with myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2) and determine its relationship to pain and fatigue. Data on health status (SF-36), pain (MPQ) and fatigue (CIS-fatigue) were collected for the Dutch DM2 population (n = 32). Results were compared with those of sex- and age-matched adult-onset myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) patients.

Quality of arithmetic education for children with cerebral palsy.

The aim of this exploratory study was to investigate the quality of arithmetic education for children with cerebral palsy. The use of individual educational plans, amount of arithmetic instruction time, arithmetic instructional grouping, and type of arithmetic teaching method were explored in three groups: children with cerebral palsy (CP) in special (CP-special; n = 41) and mainstream schools (CP-mainstream; n = 16) and a control group in mainstream schools (n = 16). The majority of individual educational plans did not include well-formulated arithmetic goals and many were not based on optimal assessment.

Arithmetic difficulties in children with cerebral palsy are related to executive function and working memory.

Background: Although it is believed that children with cerebral palsy are at high risk for learning difficulties and arithmetic difficulties in particular, few studies have investigated this issue.

Methods: Arithmetic ability was longitudinally assessed in children with cerebral palsy in special (n = 41) and mainstream education (n = 16) and controls in mainstream education (n = 16). Second grade executive function and working memory scores were used to predict third grade arithmetic accuracy and response time.

The relationship between medical impairments and arithmetic development in children with cerebral palsy.

Arithmetic ability was tested in children with cerebral palsy without severe intellectual impairment (verbal IQ >or= 70) attending special (n = 41) or mainstream education (n = 16) as well as control children in mainstream education (n = 16) throughout first and second grade. Children with cerebral palsy in special education did not appear to have fully automatized arithmetic facts by the end of second grade. Their lower accuracy and consistently slower (verbal) response times raise important concerns for their future arithmetic development.

The effect of cerebral palsy on arithmetic accuracy is mediated by working memory, intelligence, early numeracy, and instruction time.

The development of addition and subtraction accuracy was assessed in first graders with cerebral palsy (CP) in both mainstream (16) and special education (41) and a control group of first graders in mainstream education (16). The control group out-performed the CP groups in addition and subtraction accuracy and this difference could not be fully explained by differences in intelligence. Both CP groups showed evidence of working memory deficits.

Psychophysiological evidence that the SNARC effect has its functional locus in a response selection stage.

When participants judge the parity of visually presented digits, left-hand responses are faster for numerically small numbers, whereas right-hand responses are faster for large numbers. The present study aimed to find more direct evidence for the functional locus of this effect by recording brain waves while participants performed speeded parity judgments giving manual responses. Our results show clear and robust SNARC effects in the response-locked event-related potentials (ERPs) compared to the stimulus-locked ERPs, confirming that the SNARC effect arises during response-related rather than stimulus-related processing stages.

Expectancy effects on omission evoked potentials in musicians and non-musicians.

Abstract An expanded omitted stimulus paradigm was investigated to determine whether expectancy would modulate the amplitude of the omission evoked potentials (OEPs). In addition, we examined the effects of musical expertise on OEPs. Trials started with 3-7 beats randomly and contained 5 omitted beats.

Perceptions of cardiovascular risk among patients with hypertension or diabetes.

We aimed to examine risk perceptions among patients at moderate to high cardiovascular risk. A questionnaire about perceived absolute risk of myocardial infarction and stroke was sent to 2424 patients with hypertension or diabetes. Response rate was 86.