Reduced pattern similarity in brain activation during orthographic processing in children with developmental dyslexia.

Intra-individual variability of neural response has been found to be negatively associated with cognitive proficiency and automaticity. However, whether developmental dyslexia (DD) is marked by greater intra-individual neural variability remains unclear. Using a multivariate approach and dual-control group design, the current study aims to examine whether the pattern similarity of brain activation during a visual spelling task is abnormal in children with DD compared to age control and reading control children.

Distinct neural correlates of poor decoding and poor comprehension in children with reading disability.

Reading disability (RD) can manifest itself as a word decoding problem or a reading comprehension problem. In the current study, we identified 3 subtypes of RD: poor decoders (PD), poor comprehenders (PC), and poor-in-both (PB). We found that PD had greater deficits in meta-linguistic skills such as phonological awareness, orthographic skills, and morphological skills than PC, whereas PC had greater deficits in listening comprehension than PD.

Convergent and divergent brain structural and functional abnormalities associated with developmental dyslexia.

Brain abnormalities in the reading network have been repeatedly reported in individuals with developmental dyslexia (DD); however, it is still not totally understood where the structural and functional abnormalities are consistent/inconsistent across languages. In the current multimodal meta-analysis, we found convergent structural and functional alterations in the left superior temporal gyrus across languages, suggesting a neural signature of DD. We found greater reduction in grey matter volume and brain activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus in morpho-syllabic languages (e.

Poor reading is characterized by a more connected network with wrong hubs.

Using graph theory, we examined topological organization of the language network in Chinese children with poor reading during an auditory rhyming task and a visual spelling task, compared to reading-matched controls and age-matched controls. First, poor readers (PR) showed reduced clustering coefficient in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and higher nodal efficiency in the bilateral superior temporal gyri (STG) during the visual task, indicating a less functionally specialized cluster around the left IFG and stronger functional links between bilateral STGs and other regions. Furthermore, PR adopted additional right-hemispheric hubs in both tasks, which may explain increased global efficiency across both tasks and lower normalized characteristic shortest path length in the visual task for the PR.

A hierarchical deficit model of reading disability: Evidence from dynamic causal modelling analysis.

Deficits have been documented in visuo-orthographic processing as well as phonological retrieval/manipulation during visual word reading in individuals with reading disability (RD); however, the relationship between these deficits remains unclear. Previously, we found that during word reading, visuo-orthographic deficit appears to be a neural signature of RD, but deficits in phonological retrieval/manipulation appears to be a consequence of being RD (Cao et al., 2020).

The effects of prequestions on classroom learning.

Studies have shown that prequestions-asking students questions before they learn something-benefit memory retention. Prequestions would seem to be a useful technique for enhancing students' learning in their courses, but classroom investigations of prequestions have been sparse. In the current study, students from an introductory psychology course were randomly assigned to receive prequestions over each upcoming lesson (prequestion group) or to not receive prequestions (control group).

Does Instruction Affect the Underlying Dimensionality of a Kinesiology Test?

Does effective instruction, which changes students' knowledge and possibly alters their cognitive functions, also affect the dimensionality of an achievement test? This question was examined by the parameterization of kinesiology test items (n = 42) with a Rasch dichotomous model, followed by an investigation of dimensionality in a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental study design. College students (n = 108) provided responses to kinesiology achievement test items. Then the stability of item difficulties, gender differences, and the interaction of item content categories with dimensionality were examined.

The risks and benefits of running barefoot or in minimalist shoes: a systematic review.

Context: The popularity of running barefoot or in minimalist shoes has recently increased because of claims of injury prevention, enhanced running efficiency, and improved performance compared with running in shoes. Potential risks and benefits of running barefoot or in minimalist shoes have yet to be clearly defined.

Objective: To determine the methodological quality and level of evidence pertaining to the risks and benefits of running barefoot or in minimalist shoes.

An external validation study of a classification of mixed connective tissue disease and systemic lupus erythematosus patients.

Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD) and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) are autoimmune rheumatic diseases that are difficult for physicians to diagnose and to distinguish for a variety of reasons. The correct classification of these two diseases is a crucial issue for clinicians who treat autoimmune rheumatic diseases. In prior research, medical risk factors represented by instrument or laboratory measures and physician judgments (12 key features for MCTD and 12 key features for SLE) were parameterized with a one parameter logistic function in a Rasch model.

Multi-factor scale consolidation when theory is weak.

As a practical matter, Spirituality and Quality of Life in the health sciences are usually measured separately. Theoretical foundations for this distinction, however, are not strong. In this research, an empirical investigation was conducted into their joint calibration with a Rasch model.

A Rasch analysis for classification of systemic lupus erythematosus and mixed connective tissue disease.

The classification of rheumatic diseases is challenging because these diseases have protean and frequently overlapping clinical and laboratory manifestations. This problem is typified by the difficulty of classification and differentiation of two prototypic multi-system autoimmune diseases, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Mixed Connective Tissue Disease (MCTD). The researchers submitted medical risk factor data represented by instrument or laboratory measures and physician judgments (12 key features for SLE) from 43 patients diagnosed with SLE and 12 key features for MCTD from 51 patients diagnosed with MCTD to the WINSTEPS Rasch analysis program.

Using a Rasch scale to characterize the clinical features of patients with a clinical diagnosis of uncertain, probable, or possible Alzheimer disease at intake.

Objective: This study examined the clinical features of patients with clinical diagnoses of probable Alzheimer disease (AD), possible AD, and uncertain.

Design: Case study comparing three groups of AD patients diagnosed at their initial visit to an Alzheimer outpatient clinic.

Setting: Southern Illinois University School of Medicine's Center for Alzheimer Disease and Related Disorders (CADRD) assessment sites (20) in rural Illinois.

Risk-factor fusion for predicting multifactorial diseases.

A generalized classification methodology is developed to predict the presence or absence of a multifactorial disease from a set of risk factors thought to be correlated with the disease. The methodology includes fusion to combine risk factors into a single feature vector, normalization to overcome the problems associated with fusing features which have different formats and ranges, discrete Karhunen-Loeve transform (DKLT)-based transformation to facilitate parametric classifier development, the selection of features with high interclass separations, and the design of parametric classifiers. The validity of the method is demonstrated by applying it to predict the occurrence of gout from 14 risk factors.