THE BRAIN – Historically Thinking

1. Brain Research and DyslexiaThe Case for a Neurobiological Basisby Kristina, Mandy, Nancy and Sally

2. THE BRAIN – Historically Thinking • 1762 Jean-Jacques Rousseau: “Our nervous systems are not like machines, but are alive and able to change”. (‘perfectibilite’) • 1890 William James: “organic matter, especially nervous tissue, seems endowed with a very extraordinary degree of plasticity”.

3. 1861 Paul Broca – ‘localization’ - located area responsible for speech – instigated theory that brain damage to one area was final • 1949 Canadian psychologist Donald Hebb (learning and memory dependent upon strengthening of synapses): “Cells that fire together wire together”.

4. L hemisphere – language (thinking, planning, problem solving through language) • R hemisphere – interpretation of non-verbal information such as body language, facial expressions and voice tone, registering and interpreting emotions, social skills.

5. Natural ‘pruning’ -Cells lost through decay and lack of use • We can improve memory capacity (‘Ram’) as well as our cognitive ability (‘Processor’) due to neuroplasticity • Neurogenisis: Recognition relatively recent. Norman Doidge (2009) ‘now accepted as a fact, and not a theory’.

6. THE BRAIN

7. Brain Imaging: fMRI • Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging • Large magnet compares amount of oxygenated hemoglobin entering cells with the amount of deoxygenated leaving • Computer colours in the brain regions receiving more oxygenated blood • Locates activated regions

8. Brain Imaging: CT Scan • Computed Tomography • Beam of x-rays shot through brain • Computer reconstructs an image of each slice or brain section

9. Brain Imaging: PET • Positron Emission Tomography • Injected with radioactive solution • Regions of higher activity accumulate more radiation • Computer displays differing concentrations • More active are red, quieter are blue

10. Structural Differences • Absence of ordinary asymmetry – usually left is larger • Temporal , Occipital and Parietal Lobes • Excess of gray matter in left temporal lobe • Disorganized groups of neurons in visual and verbal areas

11. Functional Differences • Disruption/underactivation in an extensive system of nerve bundles in the temporal region • Less activity in occipital and parietal lobe • Greater activation in lower frontal areas

12. Non Dyslexic Brain during reading How the Dyslexic Brain Reads Dyslexic Brain during reading www.sciencephoto.com/media/266968/enlarge

13. Brain Imaging CAN Identify anomalies Track effects of interventions CAN’T • Diagnose/screen....yet • Determine degree of difficulty

14. Possible Causes of Learning Disabilities Drug use: • alcohol and neural growth • LD, more than a single cause • smoking during pregnancy • drugs – cocaine … crack

15. Possible Causes of Learning Disabilities Pregnancy and Delivery: • During pregnancy, development of the brain is vulnerable to all kinds of disruptions. • Disruption later in pregnancy • Twisted umbilical cord

16. Genetics Factors • Ectopias • Six regions linked to dyslexia • Think of it as a skyscraper • Cortical neurons play a key role • Misconceptions about brain development

17. Environmental Factors • Toxins in the Child’s Environment: Lead, Cadmium and Mercury

18. Environmental Factors • Stress in the Child’s Environment • Television • Regular fluorescent lighting, classroom computer, videos • Visual perceptual difficulties

19. Helping the Dyslexic Brain • What does brain research say about reading intervention? • Brain plasticity and what this means for children with Dyslexia • Research on Intervention • Intense • Prolonged • Systematic • Activates the motivation, attention and pleasure networks of the brain

20. Interventions Based on Brain Research • Remedial intervention • Working with students on an intensive remedial reading program using strategies that target the reading disability. • Reading Recovery would be an example of this. • Language!, Project read and Wilson Reading Systems are another examples.

21. Remedial Intervention • What does the research say: • Intensive and prolonged reading programs such as these improve the areas of the brain that are activated during reading . • Brain imaging shows the integrity of white matter increased the wiring of the brain after 100 hours of remedial intervention. • Intervention has increased activity in parieto-temporal region of the brain and pathways between regions of the brain were solidified.

22. More Research Results • Brain imaging has also shown that the brain can compensate for areas that have dysfunction. • Brain activity in parts of the right hemisphere of the brain increase and helps take over what the left hemisphere would normally do when reading.

23. Images Before and After Phonological Intervention

24. Fast ForWord • A computer program that uses a series of brain exercises to encourage cerebral cross tracking.

25. Fast ForWord • What the research says: • In typical readers 11 different regions of the brain are more active when listening to fast changing sounds compared to slow changing sounds. • Students with dyslexia do not activate the same areas of the brain when listening to these sounds. • After using the program the brains of children with dyslexia appeared to rewire and look more like typical readers and their reading ability improved.

26. Fast ForWord • Image A - Yellow spots indicate the areas that responded more to fast changing sounds than slow changing sounds in typical readers. • Image B – Children with dyslexia did not show these differences.

27. Resources Carnegie Mellon University. (2009, December 9). First evidence of brain rewiring in children: Reading remediation positively alters brain tissue. Retrieved July 17, 2012, from Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091209121200 Carnegie Mellon University. (2008, June 11). Remedial instruction can make strong readers out of poor readers, brain imaging study reveals. Retrieved July 17, 2012, from Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080611103900.htm Children's Hospital Boston. (2007, October 30). Sound training rewires dyslexic children's brains for reading. Retrieved July 17, 2012, from Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071030114055/htm

28. Resources Dehaene, S. (2009). Reading in the Brain. New York: Viking. Dyslexia: What Brain Research Reveals About Reading. Retrieved July 17, 2012 from, http://www.ldonline.org/article/10784 Fiedorowicz, C., (2005) Neurobiological Basis of Learning Disabilities: An Overview. The Learning Disabiliites Association of Canada Research. Retrieved July 17, 2012 from, http://www.ldac-taac.ca/Research/neurobiological=e.asp Hannula-Jouppi K, Kaminen-Ahola N, Taipale M, Eklund R, Nopola-Hemmi J, et al. (2005) The Axon Guidance Receptor Gene ROBO1 Is a Candidate Gene for Developmental Dyslexia . Retrieved July 17, 2012 from, PLos Genetics http://wwwhuman.cornel.edu/hd/outreach-extension/upload/temple/pdf

29. Resources Jensen, Eric. (1998) Teaching with the brain in mind. Shaywitz, B.A., Lyon, G.R. And Shaywitz, S.E. (2006). The role of functional magnetic resonance imaging in understanding reading and dyslexia. Developmental Neuropsychology 30(1), 613-632 Sousa, David A. (2007). How the special needs brain learns. Corwin Press. Temple, E. (n.d.). Dyslexia and the Brain: Research Shows that Reading Ability Can be Improved. Retrieved July 17, 2012, from Human Development Outreach and Extension www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.0010050

30. Resources Understanding the Brain and Learning Disabilities. Retrieved July 17, 2012 from http://www.articlesforeducators.com/article.asp?aid=92 Sales, L (2009) Norman Doidge Discusses Neuroplasticity , Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2008/s2558852.htm