Abstract
Learning disorders (LDs) are diagnosed in children whose academic skills of reading, writing or mathematics are impaired and lagging according to their age, schooling and intelligence. Children with LDs experience substantial working memory (WM) deficits, even more pronounced if more than one of the academic skills is affected. We compared the task-related electroencephalogram (EEG) power spectral density of children with LDs (n = 23) with a control group of children with good academic achievement (n = 22), during the performance of a WM task. sLoreta was used to estimate the current distribution at the sources, and 18 brain regions of interest (ROIs) were chosen with an extended version of the eigenvector centrality mapping technique. In this way, we lessened some drawbacks of the traditional EEG at the sensor space by an analysis at the brain-sources level over data-driven selected ROIs. Results: The LD group showed fewer correct responses in the WM task, an overall slower EEG with more delta and theta activity, and less high-frequency gamma activity in posterior areas. We explain these EEG patterns in LD children as indices of an inefficient neural resource management related with a delay in neural maturation.
Highlights
Learning disorders (LDs) are a main neurodevelopmental impairment, with a prevalence of 5–15%in children between 5 and 16 years old [1,2,3]
To assess the possible differences in performance at the behavioral level in terms of the of correct responses and the reaction time between both the two groups and the two task conditions, we percentage of correct responses and the reaction time between both the two groups and the two task used a Linear Mixed Effect Model (LME) [71], including the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) as a predictor variable [57]
We aimed to examine the EEG power spectrum density of children with LD during the performance of a working memory (WM) task
Summary
Learning disorders (LDs) are a main neurodevelopmental impairment, with a prevalence of 5–15%in children between 5 and 16 years old [1,2,3]. A specific LD is diagnosed for persistent difficulties in learning academic skills such as reading, writing or mathematics. The LD diagnosis requires the impaired academic skill to be significantly lagging for the age, schooling and the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) of the child [2]. An LD child with a combined deficiency in two or three of these skills is a frequently found subtype of LD, formerly known as LD not otherwise specified [4], and this co-occurrence of academic impairments appears in between 30 and 70% of the LD cases in children [5]. Learning disorders usually include a heterogeneous frame of cognitive impairments [5]. A known source of this heterogeneity is a working memory (WM) deficit [6]. Working memory is the capacity to store and manipulate information for short periods of time at the service of goal-directed behaviors [7]
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