0000000000305771
AUTHOR
Stefano Vicari
Sensory Processing Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Taking Stock of Assessment and Novel Therapeutic Tools
Sensory processing disorders (SPDs) can be described as difficulty detecting, modulating, interpreting, and/or responding to sensory experiences. Because SPDs occur in many individuals with autism spectrum disorder and in other populations with neurodevelopmental disorders, it is important to distinguish between typical and atypical functioning in sensory processes and to identify early phenotypic markers for developing SPDs. This review considers different methods for diagnosing SPDs to outline a multidisciplinary approach useful for developing valid diagnostic measures. In particular, the advantages and limitations of the most commonly used tools in assessment of SPDs, such as caregiver r…
Developmental dissociation between visual and auditory repetition priming: The role of input lexicons
Contrasting theories posit the source of verbal repetition priming in the activation of preexisting memory representations in the input lexicons or, alternatively, in the formation of new episodic memory traces. The two hypotheses predict different outcomes from the comparison of developmental rates of visual and auditory verbal repetition priming. The activation theory predicts a developmental dissociation between the early maturation of auditory priming and the later maturation of visuo-verbal priming, contingent upon the discrepant acquisition rates of the auditory and visual input lexicons. The episodic theory, instead, does not make such an assumption. We administered visual and audito…
Evidence for reading improvement following tDCS treatment in children and adolescents with Dyslexia.
Purpose There is evidence that non-invasive brain stimulation transitorily modulates reading by facilitating the neural pathways underactive in individuals with dyslexia. The study aimed at investigating whether multiple sessions of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) would enhance reading abilities of children and adolescents with dyslexia and whether the effect is long-lasting. Methods Eighteen children and adolescents with dyslexia received three 20-minute sessions a week for 6 weeks (18 sessions) of left anodal/right cathodal tDCS set at 1 mA over parieto-temporal regions combined with a cognitive training. The participants were randomly assigned to the active or the sham tre…
P 61. Is high frequency rTMS a new tool in remediating dyslexia?
Introduction Evidence from functional neuroimaging has reported hypoactivation of the left parieto-temporal regions in children and adults with dyslexia when they engage in reading-related tasks (Shaywitz et al., 2002; Richlan et al., 2011). Studies on the remediation of dyslexia have consistently found that remedial treatment improves reading ability and increases activation in critical brain areas (Temple et al., 2003; Hoeft et al., 2011). Objectives We wanted to determine whether high frequency repetitive trancranial magnetic stimulation (hf-rTMS) over areas that are underactive in dyslexics during reading, such as the left superior temporal gyrus (STG) and the left inferior parietal lob…
How to improve reading skills in dyslexics: the effect of high frequency rTMS.
The latest progress in understanding remediation of dyslexia underlines how some changes in brain are a necessary mechanism of improvement. We wanted to determine whether high frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (hf-rTMS) over areas that are underactive during reading in dyslexics, would improve reading of dyslexic adults. We applied 5Hz-TMS over both left and right inferior parietal lobule (IPL) and superior temporal gyrus (STG) prior to word, non-word and text reading aloud. Results show that hf-rTMS stimulation over the left IPL improves non-word reading accuracy and hf-rTMS stimulation over the left STG increases word reading speed and text reading accuracy. Moreover …
Reading changes in children and adolescents with dyslexia after transcranial direct current stimulation.
Noninvasive brain stimulation offers the possibility to induce changes in cortical excitability and it is an interesting option as a remediation tool for the treatment of developmental disorders. This study aimed to investigate the effect of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on reading and reading-related skills of children and adolescents with dyslexia. Nineteen children and adolescents with dyslexia performed different reading and reading-related tasks (word, nonword, and text reading; lexical decision; phonemic blending; verbal working memory; rapid automatized naming) in a baseline condition without tDCS and after 20 min of exposure to three different tDCS conditions: left …
Peripersonal Visuospatial Abilities in Williams Syndrome Analyzed by a Table Radial Arm Maze Task
Williams syndrome (WS) is a genetic deletion syndrome characterized by severe visuospatial deficits affecting spatial exploration and navigation abilities in extra-personal space.To date, little is known about spatial elaboration and reaching abilities in the peripersonal space in individuals with WS. The present study is aimed at evaluating the visuospatial abilities in individuals with WS and comparing their performances with those of mental age-matched typically developing (TD) children by using a highly sensitive ecological version of the Radial Arm Maze (table RAM). We evaluated 15 individuals with WS and 15 TD children in two different table RAM paradigms: the free-choice paradigm, ma…
High frequency rTMS over the left parietal lobule increases non-word reading accuracy
Increasing evidence in the literature supports the usefulness of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in studying reading processes. Two brain regions are primarily involved in phonological decoding: the left superior temporal gyrus (STG), which is associated with the auditory representation of spoken words, and the left inferior parietal lobe (IPL), which operates in phonological computation. This study aimed to clarify the specific contribution of IPL and STG to reading aloud and to evaluate the possibility of modulating healthy participants' task performance using high frequency repetitive TMS (hf-rTMS). The main finding is that hf-rTMS over the left IPL improves non-word reading accu…