The time course of reading processes in children with and without dyslexia: an ERP study

The main diagnostic criterion for developmental dyslexia (DD) in transparent orthographies is a remarkable reading speed deficit, which is often accompanied by spelling difficulties. These deficits have been traced back to both deficits in orthographic and phonological processing. For a better understanding of the reading speed deficit in DD it is necessary to clarify which processing steps are degraded in children with DD during reading. In order to address this question the present study used EEG to investigate three reading related ERPs: the N170, N400 and LPC. Twenty-nine children without DD and 52 children with DD performed a phonological lexical decision (PLD)-task, which tapped both orthographic and phonological processing. Children were presented with words, pseudohomophones, pseudowords and false fonts and had to decide whether the presented stimulus sounded like an existing German word or not. Compared to control children, children with DD showed deficits in all the investigated ERPs. Firstly, a diminished mean area under the curve for the word material-false font contrasts in the time window of the N170 was observed, indicating a reduced degree of print sensitivity; secondly, N400 amplitudes, as suggested to reflect the access to the orthographic lexicon and grapheme-phoneme conversion, were attenuated; and lastly, phonological access as indexed by the LPC was degraded in children with DD. Processing differences dependent on the linguistic material in children without DD were observed only in the LPC, suggesting that similar reading processes were adopted independent of orthographic familiarity. The results of this study suggest that effective treatment should include both orthographic and phonological training. Furthermore, more longitudinal studies utilizing the same task and stimuli are needed to clarify how these processing steps and their time course change during reading development

What does the brain of children with developmental dyslexia tell us about reading improvement? ERP evidence from an intervention study

Intervention is key to managing developmental dyslexia (DD), but not all children with DD benefit from treatment. Some children improve (improvers, IMP), whereas others do not improve (non-improvers, NIMP). Neurobiological differences between IMP and NIMP have been suggested, but studies comparing IMP and NIMP in childhood are missing. The present study examined whether ERP patterns change with treatment and differ between IMP and NIMP. We investigated the ERPs of 28 children with DD and 25 control children (CON) while performing a phonological lexical decision (PLD) task before and after a 6-month intervention. After intervention children with DD were divided into IMP (n = 11) and NIMP (n = 17). In the PLD-task children were visually presented with words, pseudohomophones, pseudowords, and false fonts and had to decide whether the presented stimulus sounded like an existing German word or not. Prior to intervention IMP showed higher N300 amplitudes over fronto-temporal electrodes compared to NIMP and CON and N400 amplitudes were attenuated in both IMP and NIMP compared to CON. After intervention N300 amplitudes of IMP were comparable to those of CON and NIMP. This suggests that the N300, which has been related to phonological access of orthographic stimuli and integration of orthographic and phonological representations, might index a compensatory mechanism or precursor that facilitates reading improvement. The N400, which is thought to reflect grapheme-phoneme conversion or the access to the orthographic lexicon increased in IMP from pre to post and was comparable to CON after intervention. Correlations between N300 amplitudes pre, growth in reading ability and N400 amplitudes post indicated that higher N300 amplitudes might be important for reading improvement and increase in N400 amplitudes showing the same cognitive profile might differ regarding their neuronal profile which could further influence reading improvement

Female firesetters: gender associated psychological and psychopathological features

Objective: Female firesetters are reported to commit nearly a third of deliberately set fires, yet there are limited studies examining the characteristics that distinguish them from suitable comparison groups. The aim of this study is to compare incarcerated female firesetters with incarcerated male firesetters and female offender controls on psychopathological and psychological features that could be targeted via therapeutic interventions. Method: Sixty-five female firesetters, 128 male firesetters, and 63 female offenders were recruited from the prison estate. Participants completed a battery of validated tools assessing psychiatric traits and psychological characteristics (i.e., inappropriate fire interest, emotion/self-regulation, social competence, self-concept, offense-supportive attitudes, and boredom proneness) highlighted in the existing literature. Results: Major depression and an internal locus of control distinguished female firesetters from male firesetters. Alcohol dependence, serious/problematic fire interest, and more effective anger regulation distinguished female firesetters from the female offender control group. Conclusions: This is the first study to examine differences between female firesetters, male firesetters, and female control offenders on both psychopathological features and psychological traits. These findings highlight the gender-specific and offence-specific needs of female firesetters that clinicians need to consider when implementing programs that ensure client responsivity. Keywords: firesetting, arson, psychopathology, female offender

Examining the Psychopathology of Incarcerated Male Firesetters using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III

Research to date has been equivocal on the relationship between firesetting and psychopathology, and has been impeded by studies lacking adequate control samples. The present study examined psychopathology in a sample of incarcerated adult male firesetters (n = 112) and prison controls (n = 113) using the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III. Firesetters demonstrated multiple elevated scores on personality and clinical syndrome scales. Logistic regression showed that the borderline personality scale was the strongest personality scale discriminator between firesetters and controls. Major depression and drug dependence were the strongest clinical syndrome scale predictors. However, both clinical syndrome scale predictors appeared to be mediated by borderline personality scores indicating that firesetters are best characterized by responding indicative of borderline personality traits rather than other psychopathological deficits. The results suggest that, relative to other offenders, firesetters face challenges with impulse control, affect regulation, stability of interpersonal relationships, and self-image

The aspect of temporal auditory information for German vowel length processing in developmental dyslexia: Behavioural and fMRI Experiments

Poor phonological processing is considered as the core symptom of developmental dyslexia (DD). Yet, it is still debated whether this deficit is the primary cause or whether it reflects a secondary symptom resulting from impairments in the processing of basic acoustic parameters of the speech signal, like rapid temporal processing. Aim of this work was to investigate temporal auditory processing in DD on a behavioural and neural level by means of a German vowel length discrimination task. Vowel pairs differing only by vowel length, being characterized by temporal and spectral cues, were chosen. Two types of long-short vowel pair differences were varied: In the phonological condition (PC), pairs of natural vowels were used, differing temporally and spectrally. In the temporal condition (TC), a natural vowel was combined with a manipulated one to keep spectral content of long and short vowels identical and thus, differing only temporally. Vowels were embedded into pseudowords and presented successively in a same-different task. 20 adolescents and adults with DD and 20 age matched controls participated in a behavioural and fMRI experiment. Discrimination accuracy differed in the TC only, with dyslexics performing significantly inferior compared to controls. Brain activation in the TC, but not in the PC, was observed bilaterally within the anterior insular cortices (AIC) in both groups and within the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) in controls. Group subtraction analyses were not significant. Subgroup analyses (based on TC performance) revealed decreased activation of the AIC and the left IFG in low performing dyslexics compared to high performing controls. The findings of this work support the notion that DD is associated with deficits in the processing of temporal auditory information and indicate that the left IFG and the AIC are part of a neural network involved in temporal auditory processing, which seems to be impaired in at least a subgroup of subjects with DD

Supporting multilingual children’s language abilities before entering school : sociodemographic background and language achievement

Gute deutsche Sprachkenntnisse sind entscheidend für eine gelingende Schullaufbahn mehrsprachiger Kinder. Allerdings ist dies nicht immer gegeben. In Hessen werden zu diesem Zweck sprachliche Vorlaufkurse in Verantwortung der Schulen im letzten Jahr vor Schulbeginn durchgeführt. Im Rahmen einer größeren Evaluationsstudie, die sich mit der Effektivität verschiedener Varianten der Durchführung dieser Kurse beschäftigte, wird hier über die Ausgangsdaten der teilnehmenden Kinder berichtet. Dabei werden gravierende sprachliche Probleme offensichtlich, wie beispielsweise deutliche Wortschatzdefizite, die überwiegend auf eine mangelnde Förderung im Deutschen hinweisen. Diskutiert wird unter anderem die Tatsache, dass die überwiegende Mehrheit der Kinder schon mindestens zwei Jahre in einer Kindertagesstätte verbracht hat, was bessere Sprachkenntnisse vermuten ließe

Temperatursprickor i betongkonstruktioner : beräkningsmetoder för hydrationsspänningar och diagram för några vanliga typfall. Del A, B och C

Godkänd; 1997; 20091027 (ysko