Intrinsic Cortico-Subcortical Functional Connectivity in Developmental Dyslexia and Developmental Coordination Disorder.

Fabien Cignetti,Federico Nemmi,Nadine Girard,Patrice Péran,Jean-Michel Albaret,Marianne Vaugoyeau,Christine Assaiante,Yves Chaix

doi:10.1093/texcom/tgaa011

Abstract

Developmental dyslexia (DD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are distinct diagnostic disorders. However, they also frequently co-occur and may share a common etiology. It was proposed conceptually a neural network framework that explains differences and commonalities between DD and DCD through impairments of distinct or intertwined cortico-subcortical connectivity pathways. The present study addressed this issue by exploring intrinsic cortico-striatal and cortico-cerebellar functional connectivity in a large (n = 136) resting-state fMRI cohort study of 8–12-year-old children with typical development and with DD and/or DCD. We delineated a set of cortico-subcortical functional circuits believed to be associated with the brain’s main functions (visual, somatomotor, dorsal attention, ventral attention, limbic, frontoparietal control, and default-mode). Next, we assessed, using general linear and multiple kernel models, whether and which circuits distinguished between the groups. Findings revealed that somatomotor cortico-cerebellar and frontoparietal cortico-striatal circuits are affected in the presence of DCD, including abnormalities in cortico-cerebellar connections targeting motor-related regions and cortico-striatal connections mapping onto posterior parietal cortex. Thus, DCD but not DD may be considered as an impairment of cortico-subcortical functional circuits.

Highlights

Developmental dyslexia (DD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are neurodevelopmental disorders that impede the child’s ability to learn reading and to master motor skills, respectively
Our findings demonstrated for the first time that intrinsic cortico-subcortical functional connectivity is affected in children with DCD and DD-DCD (i.e., COM), including abnormalities in cortico-cerebellar connections targeting sensorimotor regions (S1, M1, SMA/ACC) and corticostriatal connections mapping onto posterior parietal cortex (AG, SMG)
We demonstrated that typically developing children (TYP) vs [DCD-COM] model led to the same classification and kernels as TYP vs COM model, while accuracy decreased and some kernels get lost for TYP vs [DD-COM] model

Summary

Introduction

Developmental dyslexia (DD) and developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are neurodevelopmental disorders that impede the child’s ability to learn reading and to master motor skills, respectively. Cerebellar activation during motor adaptation to a new tool spans first over posterior and anterior lobes and becomes confined to anterior lobe with time (Imamizu et al 2000) This suggests disengagement of cognitive cerebellar territories in favor of sensorimotor ones as learning is completing. Motor procedures, regardless of whether they relate to motor sequence or motor adaptation, begin as rather abstract action plans within cognitive cortico-subcortical circuits before they translate into purely motor procedures over time within sensorimotor cortico-subcortical circuits. This view is supported by animal studies (Ashby et al 2010). It is important to emphasize the functional segregation of cortico-subcortical circuits as a pivotal principle underlying procedural learning

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Discussion

Conclusion