Differences in Brain Function and Changes with Intervention in Children with Poor Spelling and Reading Abilities

Previous fMRI studies in English-speaking samples suggested that specific interventions may alter brain function in language-relevant networks in children with reading and spelling difficulties, but this research strongly focused on reading impaired individuals. Only few studies so far investigated characteristics of brain activation associated with poor spelling ability and whether a specific spelling intervention may also be associated with distinct changes in brain activity patterns. We here investigated such effects of a morpheme-based spelling intervention on brain function in 20 children with comparatively poor spelling and reading abilities using repeated fMRI. Relative to 10 matched controls, children with comparatively poor spelling and reading abilities showed increased activation in frontal medial and right hemispheric regions and decreased activation in left occipito-temporal regions prior to the intervention, during processing of a lexical decision task. After five weeks of intervention, spelling and reading comprehension significantly improved in the training group, along with increased activation in the left temporal, parahippocampal and hippocampal regions. Conversely, the waiting group showed increases in right posterior regions. Our findings could indicate an increased left temporal activation associated with the recollection of the new learnt morpheme-based strategy related to successful training

Working memory, Reading and Mathematical Skills in children with developmental coordination disorder

The aim of the present study was investigate the relationship between working memory and reading and mathematical skills in 55 children diagnosed with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). The findings indicate a pervasive memory deficit in all memory measures. In particular, deficits observed in visuospatial short-term and working memory tasks were significantly worse than in the verbal short-term memory ones. On the basis of these deficits, the sample was divided into high and low visuospatial memory ability groups. The low visuospatial memory group performed significantly worse on the attainment measures compared to the high visuospatial memory group, even when the contribution of IQ was taken into account. When the sample was divided into high and low verbal working memory ability groups, verbal working memory skills made a unique contribution to attainment only when verbal IQ was taken into account, but not when performance IQ was statistically controlled. It is possible that the processing demands of the working memory tasks together with the active motor component reflected in the visuospatial memory tasks and performance IQ subtest both play a crucial role in learning in children with DCD

Developmental dyslexia in Chinese and English populations: dissociating the effect of dyslexia from language differences

Previous neuroimaging studies have suggested that developmental dyslexia has a different neural basis in Chinese and English populations because of known differences in the processing demands of the Chinese and English writing systems. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we provide the first direct statistically based investigation into how the effect of dyslexia on brain activation is influenced by the Chinese and English writing systems. Brain activation for semantic decisions on written words was compared in English dyslexics, Chinese dyslexics, English normal readers and Chinese normal readers, while controlling for all other experimental parameters. By investigating the effects of dyslexia and language in one study, we show common activation in Chinese and English dyslexics despite different activation in Chinese versus English normal readers. The effect of dyslexia in both languages was observed as less than normal activation in the left angular gyrus and in left middle frontal, posterior temporal and occipitotemporal regions. Differences in Chinese and English normal reading were observed as increased activation for Chinese relative to English in the left inferior frontal sulcus; and increased activation for English relative to Chinese in the left posterior superior temporal sulcus. These cultural differences were not observed in dyslexics who activated both left inferior frontal sulcus and left posterior superior temporal sulcus, consistent with the use of culturally independent strategies when reading is less efficient. By dissociating the effect of dyslexia from differences in Chinese and English normal reading, our results reconcile brain activation results with a substantial body of behavioural studies showing commonalities in the cognitive manifestation of dyslexia in Chinese and English populations. They also demonstrate the influence of cognitive ability and learning environment on a common neural system for reading

Linking memory and language : Evidence for a serial-order learning impairment in dyslexia

The present study investigated long-term serial-order learning impairments, operationalized as reduced Hebb repetition learning (HRL), in people with dyslexia. In a first multi-session experiment, we investigated both the persistence of a serial-order learning impairment as well as the long-term retention of serial-order representations, both in a group of Dutch-speaking adults with developmental dyslexia and in a matched control group. In a second experiment, we relied on the assumption that HRL mimics naturalistic word-form acquisition and we investigated the lexicalization of novel word-forms acquired through HRL. First, our results demonstrate that adults with dyslexia are fundamentally impaired in the long-term acquisition of serial-order information. Second, dyslexic and control participants show comparable retention of the long-term serial-order representations in memory over a period of one month. Third, the data suggest weaker lexicalization of newly acquired word-forms in the dyslexic group. We discuss the integration of these findings into current theoretical views of dyslexia.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Encoding order and developmental dyslexia:a family of skills predicting different orthographic components

We investigated order encoding in developmental dyslexia using a task that presented nonalphanumeric visual characters either simultaneously or sequentially—to tap spatial and temporal order encoding, respectively—and asked participants to reproduce their order. Dyslexic participants performed poorly in the sequential condition, but normally in the simultaneous condition, except for positions most susceptible to interference. These results are novel in demonstrating a selective difficulty with temporal order encoding in a dyslexic group. We also tested the associations between our order reconstruction tasks and: (a) lexical learning and phonological tasks; and (b) different reading and spelling tasks. Correlations were extensive when the whole group of participants was considered together. When dyslexics and controls were considered separately, different patterns of association emerged between orthographic tasks on the one side and tasks tapping order encoding, phonological processing, and written learning on the other. These results indicate that different skills support different aspects of orthographic processing and are impaired to different degrees in individuals with dyslexia. Therefore, developmental dyslexia is not caused by a single impairment, but by a family of deficits loosely related to difficulties with order. Understanding the contribution of these different deficits will be crucial to deepen our understanding of this disorder

The state of democracy and the role of (adult) education. Responses of Austrian political journalists with an introduction by Lorenz Lassnigg

Die Veröffentlichung einer SORA-Bevölkerungsumfrage zum Demokratiebewusstsein der ÖsterreicherInnen im April 2017 hat in den Medien hohe Wellen geschlagen: Die Bevölkerung wünscht sich zunehmend einen starken Führer. Die Redaktion des Magazin erwachsenenbildung.at hat dies zum Anlass genommen, um für die vorliegende Meb-Ausgabe JournalistInnen, die sich mit den aktuellen Entwicklungen liberaler Demokratien westlicher Prägung beschäftigen, nach ihrer Meinung und Einschätzung zu fragen. Zwei Journalisten haben geantwortet: Lucian Mayringer, Oberösterreichische Nachrichten und Jürgen Klatzer, Kurier. Mayringers Fazit: Der aktuelle Trend zum Populismus der Parteien und charismatischen Führungspersönlichkeiten ist als problematisch einzustufen und entstammt einer „Vertretungskrise“, in der der Bürger/die Bürgerin sich nicht mehr vom etablierten System vertreten fühlt. Den Auftrag der Erwachsenenbildung sieht Mayringer in der Vollendung des demokratischen Bildungsauftrages, der bereits in der Schule grundgelegt werden sollte und noch stärker werden müsste. Klatzer geht einen Schritt weiter und plädiert für ein Unterrichtsfach „Politische Bildung“ (und Medienkompetenz). Auch sieht er die Erwachsenenbildung in der Verantwortung, aus uns kritische mündige BürgerInnen zu machen. (DIPF/Orig.)The release of the results of a SORA public survey on Austrians’ awareness of democracy made large waves in the media in April 2017. The populace increasingly wants a strong leader. The editors of The Austrian Open Access Journal on Adult Education (Magazin erwachsenenbildung.at, Meb) took this opportunity to ask journalists concerned with the alarming developments in Western liberal democracies for their opinion and assessments. They were also asked to assess the influence of the education system in general and adult education in particular as well as the influence of the media. Two journalists responded: Lucian Mayringer from the Oberösterreichische Nachrichten newspaper and Jürgen Klatzer from the Kurier newspaper. Mayringer’s conclusion: the current trend toward populism in political parties and charismatic leaders is classified as problematic and comes from a “representation crisis” in which the citizen no longer feels represented by the established system. Mayringer sees the task of adult education as the completion of the democratic educational mission, whose foundation should already be laid in school and which must become even stronger. Klatzer goes one step further and advocates for schools to offer courses in “Political Education” (and media competence). He also sees adult education as being responsible for making us critical, mature citizens. (DIPF/Orig.

Die Equity-Methode in der internationalen Rechnungslegung: Konsolidierungs- oder Bewertungsmethode

Die Equity-Methode rückte in letzter Zeit wieder mehr in den Fokus der Aufmerksamkeit. Einerseits durch die Abschaffung des Wahlrechts für die Abbildung von Gemeinschaftsunternehmen, wodurch der Ausweis dieser nicht mehr mit der Quotenkonsolidierung erlaubt ist. Andererseits geschah dies auch aufgrund der Wiederzulassung der Equity-Methode für die Abbildung von Beteiligungen im Einzelabschluss. Durch diese beiden Entwicklungen wird die Equity-Methode vermehrt in der Praxis angewendet, wodurch auch die Probleme, die durch Regelungslücken im IAS 28 entstehen, von vermehrter Relevanz sind. Ein Hauptproblem dieser Regelungslücken ist, dass diese je nach Zuteilung der Equity-Methode zu einem bestimmten Methodenbereich anders ausgelegt werden können. Die konzeptionelle Basis der Equity-Methode wurde nie eindeutig geklärt. Sie weist sowohl Merkmale einer Konsolidierungs- als auch Merkmale einer Bewertungsmethode auf. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde versucht, auf Basis der konzeptionellen Grundlagen oder durch die Ableitung von Lösungen aus dem IFRS-Regelwerk eine Zuordnung der Equity-Methode zum Konsolidierungs- oder Bewertungsbereich vorzunehmeneingereicht von Simone Mayringer, BSc.Universität Linz, Masterarbeit, 2017(VLID)214887