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Neuroscience Advances in Reading Research

Neuroscience Advances in Reading Research. (& the brain-education divide). Gal Ben-Yehudah, PhD Learning, Research and Development Center University of Pittsburgh. October 31, 2007, Mofet Institute, Tel-Aviv. What to expect …. Part 1: Brain-education divide What is neuroscience?

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Neuroscience Advances in Reading Research

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  1. Neuroscience Advances in Reading Research (& the brain-education divide) Gal Ben-Yehudah, PhD Learning, Research and Development Center University of Pittsburgh October 31, 2007, Mofet Institute, Tel-Aviv

  2. What to expect … • Part 1: Brain-education divide What is neuroscience? • questions • Part 2: Typical reading • questions • Part 3: Atypical reading • questions

  3. Historical perspective • Early 1990’s - functional imaging becomes a tool in cognitive research • Mid 1990’s - “Early Head Start” campaign • ‘Brain-based’ - curricula, interventions, toys

  4. Education and the brain • A bridge too far! (Bruer, Educational Researcher, 1997) • Neuroscientists should use caution when speculating on the educational implications of brain research (Bruer, Nature Neuroscience, 2002) • Clear guidelines for neuroscience use in evidence-based (early) educational practice (Hirsh-Pasek & Bruer, Science, 2007)

  5. Santiago Declaration, March 2007 • “…Neuroscientific research, at this stage in its development, does not offer scientific guidelines for policy, practice, or parenting.” • “Current brain research offers a promissory note, however, for the future. Developmental models and our understanding of learning will be aided by studies that reveal the effects of experience on brain systems working in concert…” • www.jsmf.org/declaration

  6. Cell System Computational What is Neuroscience? • Cognitive Neuroscience

  7. sagital coronal axial Location of brain activity • Methods based on blood flow (metabolism): • PET (positron emission tomography) • fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)

  8. Time course of brain activity • Method based on electrical activity (at scalp) • ERP (event related potentials)

  9. Prior exposure to neuroscience research related to education Poll: Have you heard a report, read a newspaper story, or been exposed in another way to neuroscience research in your field?

  10. Part 1: Questions • Brain-education divide • Cognitive neuroscience methods

  11. Part 2: Neuroscience contributions to reading research Typical Development

  12. Familiarity with research on reading Poll: Are you familiar with research in the area of reading and/or reading disabilities?

  13. Representation of knowledge that supports reading • Types of knowledge: • Sound system - phonology • Written form - orthography • Meaning - semantic • Mapping print to sound • “Phonological recoding” (Share, 1995) • Decoding

  14. Sensory systems Auditory Visual Somatosensory ‘Classic’ language regions Wernicke Broca Motor system Articulatory planning and execution Broad generalizations

  15. A Visual word form area? Orthography in the brain Cohen et al., Brain, 2002

  16. Phonology in the brain • Input phonology • Acoustic/phonetic code • Output phonology • Articulatory code • Association process • Auditory-motor interface Hickok & Poeppel, Cognition, 2004

  17. Mapping orthography to phonology • Mapping principles • Graphic units + language levels (Perfetti, 2003) • Cross language differences lead to different representations and “ways” to read. • Alphabetic C A T => /k/ /æ/ /t/ • Nonalphabetic =>/huo/3

  18. Reading in alphabetic vs. nonalphabetic writing systems • Extensive overlap in the reading network • Unique to Chinese reading • Bilateral occipito-temporal regions • Left middle frontal region Tan et al. (2005) Chinese > Alphabetic Alphabetic > Chinese

  19. Brain activity reflects cross-language differences in mapping principles • Network for reading • Reading different items • Nonwords > Words • English readers • Nonwords > Words • Italian > English readers Paulesu et al., 2000

  20. A cost for reading single words with missing vowels (Frost, 1995) No cost when words are in a sentence or text. Morphology is one level of ‘grain-size’ in Hebrew Hebrew without vowels Hebrew with vowels What about Hebrew? Frost, Developmental Science, Commentary 2006

  21. Developmental changes • Implicit reading task • Correlated brain activity and reading skill LH RH Turkeltaub et al., Nature Neuroscience, 2003

  22. Part 2: Questions • Orthography • Phonology • Mapping print-to-sound • Similar and different patterns of brain activity across writing systems

  23. Part 3: Neuroscience contributions to reading research Atypical Development

  24. Developmental dyslexia • Reading difficulty, despite average intelligence and educational opportunity • Phonological processing deficit Eden & Moats, Nature Neuroscience, Review 2002

  25. Children 10-13 yrs Nonword rhyme judgment (LEAT, JETE) Abnormal pattern of brain activity in dyslexic children Shaywitz et al., Biological Psychiatry, 2002

  26. Dyslexic adults Italian, French, English Dyslexia: biological unity across alphabetic languages NI > DYS Paulesu et al., Science, 2001

  27. Dyslexic children: Phonological intervention changes brain activity Children (8 yrs) 105 hr of a costumed phonological intervention 1-year post intervention brain activity shows a more normal profile Pre-intervention 1-yr post intervention Shaywitz et al., Biological Psychiatry, 2004

  28. Adults 112 hr of Lindamood-Bell intervention Post intervention Increased activity in LH regions seen in typical readers Compensatory activity in RH perisylvian regions Dyslexic adults: Phonological intervention changes brain activity Eden et al., Neuron, 2004

  29. What have we learned? • Cognitive neuroscience • Representation of knowledge that supports typical and atypical reading • A universal reading network, with important language-specific modifications • Brain plasticity in children and adults that have persistent reading difficulties

  30. Some final thoughts • The importance of integrating information across disciplines. • Educational observations are a basis for future neuroscience research. • Neuroscience enables us to understand the biological basis of cognition.

  31. Part 3: Questions • Developmental dyslexia • Abnormal brain activity • Effects of remediation on brain activity • General questions • Revisit brain-education divide

  32. From neuroscience to educational practice – a reasonable leap? Poll: After listening to this talk, what do you think: today, can neuroscience make a practical contribution to educational practice?

  33. Thank You • Web sites for further information on the brain-education debate: • Learning sciences and brain research: http://www.teach-the-brain.org • Brain and Learning: http://www.brainandlearning.eu • International Mind, Brain, and Education Society: http://www.imbes.org

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