Reading aloud boosts connectivity through the putamen

Functional neuroimaging and lesion studies have frequently reported thalamic and putamen activation during reading and speech production. However, it is currently unknown how activity in these structures interacts with that in other reading and speech production areas. This study investigates how reading aloud modulates the neuronal interactions between visual recognition and articulatory areas, when both the putamen and thalamus are explicitly included. Using dynamic causal modeling in skilled readers who were reading regularly spelled English words, we compared 27 possible pathways that might connect the ventral anterior occipito-temporal sulcus (aOT) to articulatory areas in the precentral cortex (PrC). We focused on whether the neuronal interactions within these pathways were increased by reading relative to picture naming and other visual and articulatory control conditions. The results provide strong evidence that reading boosts the aOT–PrC pathway via the putamen but not the thalamus. However, the putamen pathway was not exclusive because there was also evidence for another reading pathway that did not involve either the putamen or the thalamus. We conclude that the putamen plays a special role in reading but this is likely to vary with individual reading preferences and strategies

Measurement Variability in Treatment Response Determination for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Improvements using Radiomics

Multimodality imaging measurements of treatment response are critical for clinical practice, oncology trials, and the evaluation of new treatment modalities. The current standard for determining treatment response in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is based on tumor size using the RECIST criteria. Molecular targeted agents and immunotherapies often cause morphological change without reduction of tumor size. Therefore, it is difficult to evaluate therapeutic response by conventional methods. Radiomics is the study of cancer imaging features that are extracted using machine learning and other semantic features. This method can provide comprehensive information on tumor phenotypes and can be used to assess therapeutic response in this new age of immunotherapy. Delta radiomics, which evaluates the longitudinal changes in radiomics features, shows potential in gauging treatment response in NSCLC. It is well known that quantitative measurement methods may be subject to substantial variability due to differences in technical factors and require standardization. In this review, we describe measurement variability in the evaluation of NSCLC and the emerging role of radiomics. © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved

Early changes in brain structure correlate with language outcomes in children with neonatal encephalopathy.

Global patterns of brain injury correlate with motor, cognitive, and language outcomes in survivors of neonatal encephalopathy (NE). However, it is still unclear whether local changes in brain structure predict specific deficits. We therefore examined whether differences in brain structure at 6 months of age are associated with neurodevelopmental outcomes in this population. We enrolled 32 children with NE, performed structural brain MR imaging at 6 months, and assessed neurodevelopmental outcomes at 30 months. All subjects underwent T1-weighted imaging at 3 T using a 3D IR-SPGR sequence. Images were normalized in intensity and nonlinearly registered to a template constructed specifically for this population, creating a deformation field map. We then used deformation based morphometry (DBM) to correlate variation in the local volume of gray and white matter with composite scores on the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development (Bayley-III) at 30 months. Our general linear model included gestational age, sex, birth weight, and treatment with hypothermia as covariates. Regional brain volume was significantly associated with language scores, particularly in perisylvian cortical regions including the left supramarginal gyrus, posterior superior and middle temporal gyri, and right insula, as well as inferior frontoparietal subcortical white matter. We did not find significant correlations between regional brain volume and motor or cognitive scale scores. We conclude that, in children with a history of NE, local changes in the volume of perisylvian gray and white matter at 6 months are correlated with language outcome at 30 months. Quantitative measures of brain volume on early MRI may help identify infants at risk for poor language outcomes

Evidence Of Distinctive Structural Alterations That Differentiate Adhd Boys With And Without A Comorbid Reading Disability

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and reading disability (RD) are neurodevelopmental disorders that often co-occur. Children with ADHD and co-occurring RD (ADHD/+RD) tend to show greater cognitive deficits than children with ADHD alone (ADHD/-RD). However, the extents to which comorbid RD impact structural alteration in children with ADHD have never been investigated. The overall goal of this study was to assess structural alterations in the subcortical, cortical and white matter that may differentiate ADHD/-RD from ADHD/+RD. The general hypothesis was that ADHD/+RD would show extensive alterations in regions implicated in ADHD than ADHD/-RD as well as show additional abnormalities in regions associated with RD. To this end, structural MRI and DTI scans obtained from 22 ADHD/-RD boys, 15 ADHD/+RD boys and 29 healthy control (HC) boys comparable in age and IQ were analyzed to assess alterations in striatal morphology, cortical thickness and white matter integrity. Analysis of the striatum showed greater and widespread alterations in the caudate in ADHD/+RD relative to ADHD/-RD but not putamen where the alterations were only seen in ADHD/-RD. Similarly, ADHD/+RD showed significantly thinner cortex in the regions associated with attention and cognitive control as well as additional regions associated with reading relative to ADHD/-RD and HC. Finally, analysis of DTI parameters showed greater extent of alteration in white matter architecture of the frontostriatal fiber tracts. Together, these findings provide evidence of excessive disturbances in the frontostriatal and frontoparietal networks that regulate executive functions, attention and cognitive control. Furthermore, there is evidence of additional alterations in the regions associated with reading skills. Overall, the results indicate a distinctive profile of structural alterations that differentiate ADHD/-RD from ADHD/+RD relative to HC and may underpin the greater neuropsychological impairments observed in ADHD/+RD

Eco-innovation practices’ adoption in the automotive industry

Eco-innovation is a construct that is gaining increasing interest from academics and researchers since it is commonly considered in the literature as one of the strategies that allow manufacturing companies not only to significantly reduce the negative impacts on the environment but also the generation of pollutants. However, little is known about the adoption of eco-innovation practices in manufacturing companies, particularly in the automotive industry. Therefore, this research has as main objective to fill this gap in the literature and explore the interdependence between eco-innovation of products, processes and management. The study is conducted through a research framework consisting of 3 measurement scales, 14 items and 3 hypotheses and an extensive review of the literature. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 460 companies in the automotive and auto parts industry in Mexico. Data were analyzed through Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Descriptive Statistics and Structural Equation Modelling. The results obtained show that product eco-innovation, process eco-innovation and management eco-innovation are good indicators for the adoption of eco-innovation practices for companies in the automotive and auto parts industry. The paper addresses a research gap in the academic literature in the eco-innovation field by providing evidence on the interdependence between eco-innovation of products, processes and management and the implementation of their practices in the automotive industry.N/

Language report for Catalan (English version)

The central objective of the Metanet4u project is to contribute to the establishment of a pan-European digital platform that makes available language resources and services, encompassing both datasets and software tools, for speech and language processing, and supports a new generation of exchange facilities for them.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Genome-wide association study reveals new insights into the heritability and genetic correlates of developmental dyslexia

Developmental dyslexia (DD) is a learning disorder affecting the ability to read, with a heritability of 40-60%. A notable part of this heritability remains unexplained, and large genetic studies are warranted to identify new susceptibility genes and clarify the genetic bases of dyslexia. We carried out a genome-wide association study (GWAS) on 2274 dyslexia cases and 6272 controls, testing associations at the single variant, gene, and pathway level, and estimating heritability using single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data. We also calculated polygenic scores (PGSs) based on large-scale GWAS data for different neuropsychiatric disorders and cortical brain measures, educational attainment, and fluid intelligence, testing them for association with dyslexia status in our sample. We observed statistically significant (p <2.8 x 10(-6)) enrichment of associations at the gene level, forLOC388780(20p13; uncharacterized gene), and forVEPH1(3q25), a gene implicated in brain development. We estimated an SNP-based heritability of 20-25% for DD, and observed significant associations of dyslexia risk with PGSs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (atp(T) = 0.05 in the training GWAS: OR = 1.23[1.16; 1.30] per standard deviation increase;p = 8 x 10(-13)), bipolar disorder (1.53[1.44; 1.63];p = 1 x 10(-43)), schizophrenia (1.36[1.28; 1.45];p = 4 x 10(-22)), psychiatric cross-disorder susceptibility (1.23[1.16; 1.30];p = 3 x 10(-12)), cortical thickness of the transverse temporal gyrus (0.90[0.86; 0.96];p = 5 x 10(-4)), educational attainment (0.86[0.82; 0.91];p = 2 x 10(-7)), and intelligence (0.72[0.68; 0.76];p = 9 x 10(-29)). This study suggests an important contribution of common genetic variants to dyslexia risk, and novel genomic overlaps with psychiatric conditions like bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and cross-disorder susceptibility. Moreover, it revealed the presence of shared genetic foundations with a neural correlate previously implicated in dyslexia by neuroimaging evidence.Peer reviewe