Time, number and attention in very low birth weight children

Similar effect of running on visual and auditory time perception in the ranges of milliseconds and seconds

Introduction

The ability to accurately encode events’ duration is of critical importance for almost all everyday activities, yet numerous factors have been reported to robustly distort time perception. One of these is physical activity (i.e., running, walking) but, partly due to the variety of methodologies employed, a full comprehension of the role of exercise on the encoding of time has still to be achieved.

Methods

Here we tackle the issue with a multifaceted approach by measuring the effect of vigorous running with a time generalization task for visual and auditory stimuli in the range of milliseconds (0.2–0.8 s) as well as seconds (1–4 s). At baseline, participants performed both the encoding and decoding at rest while in the experimental conditions the decoding was performed while running.

Results

Our results indicate that physical activity in both duration ranges (sub-second and seconds) was expanded during running regardless of the sensory modality used to present the stimuli. Despite this generalized effect of running on perceived duration, we found evidence for the existence of independent timing mechanisms: (1) the perceptual biases induced by running in the two temporal regimes were uncorrelated, (2) sensory precision levels (Weber fraction) were higher for stimuli in the seconds range, (3) sensory precision levels were higher for auditory than for visual stimuli, but only within the sub-second range.

Discussion

Overall, our results support previous findings suggesting (at least partially) separate timing mechanisms for short/long durations and for visual and auditory stimuli. However, they also indicate that physical activity affects all these temporal modules, suggesting a generalized interaction—via generalized and shared resources—between the motor system and the brain time mechanisms.

Math difficulties in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder do not originate from the visual number sense

There is ample evidence from literature and clinical practice indicating mathematical difficulties in individuals with ADHD, even when there is no concomitant diagnosis of developmental dyscalculia. What factors underlie these difficulties is still an open question. Research on dyscalculia and neurotypical development suggests visual perception of numerosity (the number sense) as a building block for math learning. Participants with lower numerosity estimation thresholds (higher precision) are often those with higher math capabilities. Strangely, the role of numerosity perception in math skills in ADHD has been neglected, leaving open the question whether math difficulties in ADHD also originate from a deficitary visual number sense. In the current study we psychophysically measured numerosity thresholds and accuracy in a sample of children/adolescents with ADHD, but not concomitant dyscalculia (N = 20, 8–16 years). Math abilities were also measured by tasks indexing different mathematical competences. Numerosity performance and math scores were then compared to those obtained from an age-matched control group (N = 20). Bayesian statistics indicated no difference between ADHD and controls on numerosity perception, despite many of the symbolic math tasks being impaired in participants with ADHD. Moreover, the math deficits showed by the group with ADHD remained substantial even when numerosity thresholds were statistically regressed out. Overall, these results indicate that math difficulties in ADHD are unlikely to originate from an impaired visual number sense.

Multisensory Perception and Learning: Linking Pedagogy, Psychophysics, and Human–Computer Interaction

In this review, we discuss how specific sensory channels can mediate the learning of properties of the environment. In recent years, schools have increasingly been using multisensory technology for teaching. However, it still needs to be sufficiently grounded in neuroscientific and pedagogical evidence. Researchers have recently renewed understanding around the role of communication between sensory modalities during development. In the current review, we outline four principles that will aid technological development based on theoretical models of multisensory development and embodiment to foster in-depth, perceptual, and conceptual learning of mathematics. We also discuss how a multidisciplinary approach offers a unique contribution to development of new practical solutions for learning in school. Scientists, engineers, and pedagogical experts offer their interdisciplinary points of view on this topic. At the end of the review, we present our results, showing that one can use multiple sensory inputs and sensorimotor associations in multisensory technology to improve the discrimination of angles, but also possibly for educational purposes. Finally, we present an application, the ‘RobotAngle’ developed for primary (i.e., elementary) school children, which uses sounds and body movements to learn about angles.

Typical Crossmodal Numerosity Perception in Preterm Newborns

Premature birth is associated with a high risk of damage in the parietal cortex, a key area for numerical and non-numerical magnitude perception and mathematical reasoning. Children born preterm have higher rates of learning difficulties for school mathematics. In this study, we investigated how preterm newborns (born at 28-34 weeks of gestation age) and full-term newborns respond to visual numerosity after habituation to auditory stimuli of different numerosities. The results show that the two groups have a similar preferential looking response to visual numerosity, both preferring the incongruent set after crossmodal habituation. These results suggest that the numerosity system is resistant to prematurity.

The association between visual attention and arithmetic competence: The mediating role of enumeration

The current study aimed at clarifying the nature of relation between visual attention and arithmetic competence. A group of 301 Chinese second graders was assessed. Children's visual attention was measured using two versions of a visual search task, with efficient visual search (the similarity between the target and the distractors is low) tapping automatic, stimulus-driven visual attention and inefficient visual search (the similarity between the target and the distractors is high) tapping effortful, goal-directed visual attention. Children's arithmetic competence, enumeration skills (assessed in about half of the participants), and other domain-general cognitive abilities were also assessed. The results suggest that only inefficient visual search significantly predicted children's arithmetic competence, and such a relation was mediated through their enumeration skills. The findings highlight the role of fundamental cognitive capacities in mathematics learning and provide insights into potential interventions for improving children's arithmetic competence.

Visual form perception is fundamental for both reading comprehension and arithmetic computation

Visual perception has been found to be a critical factor for reading comprehension and arithmetic computation in separate lines of research with different measures of visual form perception. The current study of 1099 Chinese elementary school students investigated whether the same visual form perception (assessed by a geometric figure matching task) underlies both reading comprehension and arithmetic computation. The results showed that visual form perception had close relations with both reading comprehension and arithmetic computation, even after controlling for age, gender, and cognitive factors such as processing speed, attention, working memory, visuo-spatial processing, and general intelligence. Results also showed that numerosity comparison's relations with reading comprehension and arithmetic computation were fully accounted for by visual form perception. These results suggest that reading comprehension and arithmetic computation might share a similar visual form processing mechanism.

Neuropsychological assessment of Chilean children with a history of extreme prematurity: An exploratory study

This study was conducted to explore the neuropsychological abilities of premature Chilean children. Two groups (Premature and Control, 10 children each, age ranging from 5 to 7.11) were established based on weeks of gestation and/or weight at birth. Relevant variables such as age, gender, schooling, and socioeconomic level were matched considering Chile's particular demographic context. Children were assessed by means of the Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil (ENI-2) battery, measuring nine cognitive domains encompassing 23 subscales. In turn, subscales are grouped in two scales: Cognitive Functions and Executive Functions. Since the ENI-2 battery provides norms for Spanish-speaking children, obtained data were inspected both for possible between-group differences and either adjustment or deviance from average range. Results show that premature children perform within typical ranges in all subscales except for Visual attention and Graphic fluency. When comparing both groups, some differences emerged. These differences are most prominent in subscales related to visuoperceptual skills. Interestingly, between-group linguistic performance is very similar. The point is made that early linguistic interventions conducted on premature children seem to positively impact on oral language expression and comprehension. On the contrary, early interventions focused on visuospatial abilities did not seem to attain the same impact. This may be a consequence of visual-information processing problems derived from cortical dorsal stream's vulnerability, which literature correlates with prematurity.

Comparing Numerical Comparison Tasks: A Meta-Analysis of the Variability of the Weber Fraction Relative to the Generation Algorithm

Since more than 15 years, researchers have been expressing their interest in evaluating the Approximate Number System (ANS) and its potential influence on cognitive skills involving number processing, such as arithmetic. Although many studies reported significant and predictive relations between ANS and arithmetic abilities, there has recently been an increasing amount of published data that failed to replicate such relationship. Inconsistencies lead many researchers to question the validity of the assessment of the ANS itself. In the current meta-analysis of over 68 experimental studies published between 2004 and 2017, we show that the mean value of the Weber fraction (w), the minimal amount of change in magnitude to detect a difference, is very heterogeneous across the literature. Within young adults, w might range from < 10 to more than 60, which is critical for its validity for research and diagnostic purposes. We illustrate here the concern that different methods controlling for non-numerical dimensions lead to substantially variable performance. Nevertheless, studies that referred to the exact same method (e.g., Panamath) showed high consistency among them, which is reassuring. We are thus encouraging researchers only to compare what is comparable and to avoid considering the Weber fraction as an abstract parameter independent from the context. Eventually, we observed that all reported correlation coefficients between the value of w and general accuracy were very high. Such result calls into question the relevance of computing and reporting at all the Weber fraction. We are thus in disfavor of the systematic use of the Weber fraction, to discourage any temptation to compare given data to some values of w reported from different tasks and generation algorithms.

Hitting the Target: Mathematical Attainment in Children Is Related to Interceptive-Timing Ability

Interceptive timing is a fundamental ability underpinning numerous actions (e.g., ball catching), but its development and relationship with other cognitive functions remain poorly understood. Piaget suggested that children need to learn the physical rules that govern their environment before they can represent abstract concepts such as number and time. Thus, learning how objects move in space and time may underpin the development of related abstract representations (i.e., mathematics). To test this hypothesis, we captured objective measures of interceptive timing in 309 primary school children (5-11 years old), alongside scores for general motor skill and national standardized academic attainment. Bayesian estimation showed that interceptive timing (but not general motor capability) uniquely predicted mathematical ability even after we controlled for age, reading, and writing attainment. This finding demonstrates that interceptive timing is distinct from other motor skills with specificity in predicting childhood mathematical ability independently of other forms of attainment and motor capability.

Visual Form Perception Can Be a Cognitive Correlate of Lower Level Math Categories for Teenagers

Numerous studies have assessed the cognitive correlates of performance in mathematics, but little research has been conducted to systematically examine the relations between visual perception as the starting point of visuospatial processing and typical mathematical performance. In the current study, we recruited 223 seventh graders to perform a visual form perception task (figure matching), numerosity comparison, digit comparison, exact computation, approximate computation, and curriculum-based mathematical achievement tests. Results showed that, after controlling for gender, age, and five general cognitive processes (choice reaction time, visual tracing, mental rotation, spatial working memory, and non-verbal matrices reasoning), visual form perception had unique contributions to numerosity comparison, digit comparison, and exact computation, but had no significant relation with approximate computation or curriculum-based mathematical achievement. These results suggest that visual form perception is an important independent cognitive correlate of lower level math categories, including the approximate number system, digit comparison, and exact computation.

The Davida Teller Award Lecture, 2016: Visual Brain Development: A review of "Dorsal Stream Vulnerability"-motion, mathematics, amblyopia, actions, and attention

Research in the Visual Development Unit on "dorsal stream vulnerability' (DSV) arose from research in two somewhat different areas. In the first, using cortical milestones for local and global processing from our neurobiological model, we identified cerebral visual impairment in infants in the first year of life. In the second, using photo/videorefraction in population refractive screening programs, we showed that infant spectacle wear could reduce the incidence of strabismus and amblyopia, but many preschool children, who had been significantly hyperopic earlier, showed visuo-motor and attentional deficits. This led us to compare developing dorsal and ventral streams, using sensitivity to global motion and form as signatures, finding deficits in motion sensitivity relative to form in children with Williams syndrome, or perinatal brain injury in hemiplegia or preterm birth. Later research showed that this "DSV" was common across many disorders, both genetic and acquired, from autism to amblyopia. Here, we extend DSV to be a cluster of problems, common to many disorders, including poor motion sensitivity, visuo-motor spatial integration for planning actions, attention, and number skills. In current research, we find that individual differences in motion coherence sensitivity in typically developing children are correlated with MRI measures of area variations in parietal lobe, fractional anisotropy (from TBSS) of the superior longitudinal fasciculus, and performance on tasks of mathematics and visuo-motor integration. These findings suggest that individual differences in motion sensitivity reflect decision making and attentional control rather than integration in MT/V5 or V3A. Its neural underpinnings may be related to Duncan's "multiple-demand" (MD) system.

Mental Numerosity Line in the Human's Approximate Number System

Previous studies have demonstrated existence of a mental line for symbolic numbers (e.g., Arabic digits). For nonsymbolic number systems, however, it remains unresolved whether a spontaneous spatial layout of numerosity exists. The current experiment investigated whether SNARC-like (Spatial-Numerical Association of Response Codes) effects exist in approximate processing of numerosity, as well as of size and density. Participants were asked to judge whether two serially presented stimuli (i.e., dot arrays, pentagons) were the same regarding numbers of dots, sizes of the pentagon, or densities of dots. Importantly, two confounds that were overlooked by most previous studies were controlled in this study: no ordered numerosity was presented, and only numerosity in the approximate number system (beyond the subitizing range) was used. The results demonstrated that there was a SNARC-like effect only in the numerosity-matching task. The results suggest that numerosity could be spontaneously aligned to a left-to-right oriented mental line according to magnitude information in human's approximate number system.

Predictive role of early milestones-related psychomotor profiles and long-term neurodevelopmental pitfalls in preterm infants

BACKGROUND

Developmental milestones are useful signposts developed to assess the pace and the trajectory of maturation occurring during specific time-windows called critical periods. The predictive role of their clinical assessment in premature infants is challenging, however, it actually represents an easy and reliable tool at follow-up.

AIM AND STUDY DESIGN

Relying on a milestone-based neurological examination, we aimed to detect the interdependence between time of achievement of each milestone with long-term neuropsychological and neurodevelopmental outcomes. The influence of pre-perinatal events was also considered.

PATIENTS & METHODS

Two-hundred-eighty patients (53.2% M) were serially assessed by classic neurological examination during the first 18months and subsequently evaluated by Griffiths Developmental Mental Scale. Children were sorted by ranges of gestational age and compared according to their different profiles.

RESULTS

The Extremely PreTerms appeared to have a globally delayed development with subsequent attentional and behavioral troubles. Differently, the older peers, from Moderately to Full Term ones, although did not show significant differences in achievement of gross motor skills, had a stable delay of visual and social skills across the age ranges. This gap was not evidenced at the long-term evaluation, except for the Extremely PreTerm children. Pre-perinatal factors played a significant role on short and long term neurodevelopmental outcome.

CONCLUSIONS

Early assessed classic neurological examination might address neurodevelopmental trajectories in PreTerm children in which visual and social skills appear to be the mostly affected. It remains the easiest and most reliable tool of evaluation throughout the follow-up programs.

Numerosity but not texture-density discrimination correlates with math ability in children

Considerable recent work suggests that mathematical abilities in children correlate with the ability to estimate numerosity. Does math correlate only with numerosity estimation, or also with other similar tasks? We measured discrimination thresholds of school-age (6- to 12.5-years-old) children in 3 tasks: numerosity of patterns of relatively sparse, segregatable items (24 dots); numerosity of very dense textured patterns (250 dots); and discrimination of direction of motion. Thresholds in all tasks improved with age, but at different rates, implying the action of different mechanisms: In particular, in young children, thresholds were lower for sparse than textured patterns (the opposite of adults), suggesting earlier maturation of numerosity mechanisms. Importantly, numerosity thresholds for sparse stimuli correlated strongly with math skills, even after controlling for the influence of age, gender and nonverbal IQ. However, neither motion-direction discrimination nor numerosity discrimination of texture patterns showed a significant correlation with math abilities. These results provide further evidence that numerosity and texture-density are perceived by independent neural mechanisms, which develop at different rates; and importantly, only numerosity mechanisms are related to math. As developmental dyscalculia is characterized by a profound deficit in discriminating numerosity, it is fundamental to understand the mechanism behind the discrimination. (PsycINFO Database Record

Cognitive robots in the development and rehabilitation of children with developmental disorders

Cognitive robots constitute a highly interdisciplinary approach to the issue of therapy of children with developmental disorders. Cognitive robots become more popular, especially in action and language integration areas, joining the experience of psychologists, neuroscientists, philosophers, and even engineers. The concept of a robot as a cognitive companion for humans may be very useful. The interaction between humans and cognitive robots may be a mediator of movement patterns, learning behaviors from demonstrations, group activities, and social behaviors, as far as higher-order concepts such as symbol manipulation capabilities, words acquisition, and sensorimotor knowledge organization. Moreover there is an occupation to check many theories, such as transferring the knowledge and skills between humans and robots. Although several robotic solutions for children have been proposed the diffusion of aforementioned ideas is still limited. The review summarizes the current and future role of cognitive robots in the development and rehabilitation of children with developmental disorders.