Dataset Information

Adaptive Working Memory Training Can Improve Executive Functioning and Visuo-Spatial Skills in Children With Pre-term Spastic Diplegia.

ABSTRACT: Pre-term spastic diplegia (pSD) due to periventricular leukomalacia is a form of cerebral palsy in which weaknesses in executive functions are reported beyond the core visuo-spatial deficits. The study aimed at improving executive functioning and visuo-spatial skills with an evidence-based training focused on working memory in children with pSD. The intervention study followed a stepped wedge design. 19 children with pSD (11 female and 8 male; age range: 4;1-13;1 years), mild to moderate upper limb impairment and Verbal Intelligence Quotient (VIQ) >80 participated to the study. The children were trained with a home-based adaptive working memory training (CogMed®) over a 5-week period. The primary outcome measure was the CogMed Improvement index; pre- and post-test explorative neuropsychological assessment was conducted with a subset of tests from the NEPSY-II battery. Working memory training in children with pSD significantly improved trained working memory abilities (CogMed indices) as well as non-trained skills, such as visuo-spatial skills, inhibition of automatic responses and phonological processing. The results suggest that standard rehabilitation schedules for children with pSD should be integrated with trainings on executive functions.

SUBMITTER: Di Lieto MC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7854548 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Adaptive Working Memory Training Can Improve Executive Functioning and Visuo-Spatial Skills in Children With Pre-term Spastic Diplegia.

Di Lieto Maria Chiara MC Pecini Chiara C Brovedani Paola P Sgandurra Giuseppina G Dell'Omo Marta M Chilosi Anna Maria AM Guzzetta Andrea A Perazza Silvia S Sicola Elisa E Cioni Giovanni G

Frontiers in neurology 20210120

Pre-term spastic diplegia (pSD) due to periventricular leukomalacia is a form of cerebral palsy in which weaknesses in executive functions are reported beyond the core visuo-spatial deficits. The study aimed at improving executive functioning and visuo-spatial skills with an evidence-based training focused on working memory in children with pSD. The intervention study followed a stepped wedge design. 19 children with pSD (11 female and 8 male; age range: 4;1-13;1 years), mild to moderate upper l ...[more]

PMID: 33551960

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Project description:Humans can quickly approximate how many objects are in a visual image, but no clear consensus has been achieved on the cognitive resources underlying this ability. Previous work has lent support to the notion that mechanisms which explicitly represent the locations of multiple objects in the visual scene within a mental map are critical for both visuo-spatial working memory and enumeration (at least for relatively small numbers of items). Regarding the cognitive underpinnings of large numerosity perception, an issue currently subject to much controversy is why numerosity estimates are often non-veridical (i.e., susceptible to biases from non-numerical quantities). Such biases have been found to be particularly pronounced in individuals with developmental dyscalculia (DD), a learning disability affecting the acquisition of arithmetic skills. Motivated by findings showing that DD individuals are also often impaired in visuo-spatial working memory, we hypothesized that resources supporting this type of working memory, which allow for the simultaneous identification of multiple objects, might also be critical for precise and unbiased perception of larger numerosities. We therefore tested whether loading working memory of healthy adult participants during discrimination of large numerosities would lead to increased interference from non-numerical quantities. Participants performed a numerosity discrimination task on multi-item arrays in which numerical and non-numerical stimulus dimensions varied congruently or incongruently relative to each other, either in isolation or in the context of a concurrent visuo-spatial or verbal working memory task. During performance of the visuo-spatial, but not verbal, working memory task, precision in numerosity discrimination decreased, participants' choices became strongly biased by item size, and the strength of this bias correlated with measures of arithmetical skills. Moreover, the interference between numerosity and working memory tasks was bidirectional, with number discrimination impacting visuo-spatial (but not verbal) performance. Overall, these results suggest that representing visual numerosity in a way that is unbiased by non-numerical quantities relies on processes which explicitly segregate/identify the locations of multiple objects that are shared with visuo-spatial (but not verbal) working memory. This shared resource may potentially be impaired in DD, explaining the observed co-occurrence of working memory and numerosity discrimination deficits in this clinical population.

Dataset Information

Adaptive Working Memory Training Can Improve Executive Functioning and Visuo-Spatial Skills in Children With Pre-term Spastic Diplegia.

Publications

Adaptive Working Memory Training Can Improve Executive Functioning and Visuo-Spatial Skills in Children With Pre-term Spastic Diplegia.

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