Problems with visual statistical learning in developmental dyslexia

Previous research shows that dyslexic readers are impaired in their recognition of faces and other complex objects, and show hypoactivation in ventral visual stream regions that support word and object recognition. Responses of these brain regions are shaped by visual statistical learning. If such learning is compromised, people should be less sensitive to statistically likely feature combinations in words and other objects, and impaired visual word and object recognition should be expected. We therefore tested whether people with dyslexia showed diminished capability for visual statistical learning. Matched dyslexic and typical readers participated in tests of visual statistical learning of pairs of novel shapes that frequently appeared together. Dyslexic readers on average recognized fewer pairs than typical readers, indicating some problems with visual statistical learning. These group differences were not accounted for by differences in intelligence, ability to remember individual shapes, or spatial attention paid to the stimuli, but other attentional problems could play a mediating role. Deficiencies in visual statistical learning may in some cases prevent appropriate experience-driven shaping of neuronal responses in the ventral visual stream, hampering visual word and object recognition.This research was funded in part by a postdoctoral grant (Recruitment Fund of the University of Iceland) awarded to Heida Maria Sigurdardottir. Arni Kristjansson is funded by the Icelandic Research Fund (IRF), the Research Fund at the University of Iceland, and the European Research Council (ERC).Peer ReviewedRitrýnt tímari

Association between adverse childhood experiences and premenstrual disorders : a cross-sectional analysis of 11,973 women

Funding Information: Open access funding provided by Karolinska Institute. The work is supported by the Erik and Edith Fernström Foundation (No. 2019-00415 to Dr. Yang), the Chinese Scholarship Council (No. 201700260289 to Dr. Yang), the Icelandic Research Fund (No. 185287-051 to Dr. Þórðardóttir), the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (FORTE) (No. 2020-00971 to Dr. Lu), the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) (No. 2020-01003 to Dr. Lu), and the Grant of Excellence from the Icelandic Research Fund (No. 163362-051 and 218274-051 to Dr. Valdimarsdóttir) and European Research Council (No. 726413 to Dr. Valdimarsdóttir). Researchers are independent of the funders. The funding has no role in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).Background: Childhood abuse and neglect have been associated with premenstrual disorders (PMDs), including premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). However, the associations of other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and the cumulative number of ACEs with PMDs remain to be explored. Methods: To evaluate the associations of the cumulative number and types of ACEs with PMDs, we conducted a cross-sectional analysis with a subsample of menstruating women within the Stress-And-Gene-Analysis (SAGA) cohort, assessed for PMDs and ACEs (N=11,973). The cumulative and individual exposure of 13 types of ACEs was evaluated by a modified ACE-International Questionnaire. A modified version of the Premenstrual Symptom Screening Tool was used to identify probable cases of PMDs, further sub-grouped into PMS and PMDD. Prevalence ratios (PRs) of PMDs in relation to varying ACEs were estimated using Poisson regression. Results: At a mean age of 34.0 years (standard deviation (SD) 9.1), 3235 (27%) met the criteria of probable PMDs, including 2501 (21%) for PMS and 734 (6%) for PMDD. The number of ACEs was linearly associated with PMDs (fully-adjusted PR 1.12 per ACE, 95% CI 1.11–1.13). Specifically, the PR for PMDs was 2.46 (95% CI 2.21–2.74) for women with 4 or more ACEs compared with women with no ACEs. A stronger association was observed for probable PMDD compared to PMS (p for difference <0.001). The associations between ACEs and PMDs were stronger among women without PTSD, anxiety, or depression, and without childhood deprivation and were stronger among women a lower level of social support (p for interaction<0.001). All types of ACEs were positively associated with PMDs (PRs ranged from 1.11 to 1.51); the associations of sexual abuse, emotional neglect, family violence, mental illness of a household member, and peer and collective violence were independent of other ACEs. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that childhood adverse experiences are associated with PMDs in a dose-dependent manner. If confirmed by prospective data, our findings support the importance of early intervention for girls exposed to ACEs to minimize risks of PMDs and other morbidities in adulthood.Peer reviewe

Adverse childhood experiences and resilience among adult women : A population-based study

© 2022, Daníelsdóttir et al. Funding Information: Funding: This work was supported by the European Research Council (Consolidator grant; UAV, grant number 726413), and the Icelandic Center for Research (Grant of excellence; UAV, grant number 163362-051). HBD was supported by a doctoral grant from the University of Iceland Research Fund. Funding Information: This work was supported by the European Research Council (UAV, grant number 726413), and the Icelandic Center for Research (Grant of excellence; UAV, grant number 163362?051). HBD was supported by a doctoral grant from the University of Iceland Research Fund. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.Funder Grant reference number Author Icelandic Centre for Research H2020 European Research Council Icelandic Centre for Research Doctoral grant Consolidator grant grant number 726413 Grant of excellence grant number 163362-051 Hilda Bj?rk Dan?elsd?ttir Unnur Anna Valdimarsd?ttir Unnur Anna Valdimarsd?ttir The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication. Funding Information: Funding This work was supported by the European Research Council (UAV, grant number 726413), and the Icelandic Center for Research (Grant of excellence; UAV, grant number 163362–051). HBD was supported by a doctoral grant from the University of Iceland Research Fund. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication. Publisher Copyright: © Daníelsdóttir et al.Background: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have consistently been associated with elevated risk of multiple adverse health outcomes, yet their contribution to coping ability and psychiatric resilience in adulthood is unclear. Methods: Cross-sectional data were derived from the ongoing Stress-And-Gene-Analysis cohort, representing 30% of the Icelandic nationwide female population, 18-69 years. Participants in the current study were 26,198 women with data on 13 ACEs measured with the ACE-International Questionnaire. Self-reported coping ability was measured with the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale and psychiatric resilience was operationalized as absence of psychiatric morbidity. Generalized linear regression assuming normal or Poisson distribution were used to assess the associations of ACEs with coping ability and psychiatric resilience controlling for multiple confounders. Results: Number of ACEs was inversely associated with adult resilience in a dose-dependent manner; every 1SD unit increase in ACE scores was associated with both lower levels of coping ability ( β = -0.14; 95% CI-0.15,-0.13) and lower psychiatric resilience ( β = -0.28; 95% CI-0.29,-0.27) in adulthood. Compared to women with 0 ACEs, women with ≥5 ACEs had 36% lower prevalence of high coping ability (PR = 0.64, 95% CI 0.59,0.70) and 58% lower prevalence of high psychiatric resilience (PR = 0.42; 95% CI 0.39,0.45). Specific ACEs including emotional neglect, bullying, sexual abuse and mental illness of household member were consistently associated with reduced adult resilience. We observed only slightly attenuated associations after controlling for adult socioeconomic factors and social support in adulthood. Conclusions: Cumulative ACE exposure is associated with lower adult resilience among women, independent of adult socioeconomic factors and social support, indicating that adult resilience may be largely determined in childhood. Funding: This work was supported by the European Research Council (Consolidator grant; UAV, grant number 726413), and the Icelandic Center for Research (Grant of excellence; UAV, grant number 163362-051). HBD was supported by a doctoral grant from the University of Iceland Research Fund.Peer reviewe

The role of visual processing in reading ability and disability: Can dyslexia be partially traced to a deficit in statistical learning?

There is growing evidence that statistical learning, the ability to detect statistical regularities in the environment, underlies reading. Recent studies suggest that a higher statistical learning ability is related to a higher reading ability in the general population. The objective of the current study was to determine if dyslexics show a deficit in statistical learning. We compared the performance of 39 adult dyslexics (M = 27.2 years) and 39 matched typical readers (M = 26.6 years) on a well-established statistical learning test. Dyslexic participants showed significantly poorer performance on the statistical learning test compared to typical readers. These results held after controlling for participants’ nonverbal intelligence, ADHD, object recognition abilities and handedness. Our results indicate that dyslexia can be partially traced to a deficit in statistical learning. It is therefore possible that dyslexia represents a general impairment in statistical learning