Beyond Reading Modulation: Temporo-Parietal tDCS Alters Visuo-Spatial Attention and Motion Perception in Dyslexia

Brain Sciences

卷:11

Cristiana Varuzza¹  Giulia Lazzaro¹  Floriana Costanzo¹  Deny Menghini¹  Stefano Vicari¹  Andrea Battisti¹  Andrea Facoetti²  Sandro Franceschini²  Simone Gori³  Sara Bertoni³  Luca Ronconi⁴ 

[1] Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Unit, Department of Neuroscience, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, IRCCS, 00146 Rome, Italy;

[2] Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, 35131 Padova, Italy;

[3] Department of Human and Social Science, University of Bergamo, 24129 Bergamo, Italy;

[4] School of Psychology, University “Vita-Salute San Raffaele”, 20132 Milano, Italy;

关键词: neuromodulation;    brain reading networks;    magnocellular-dorsal pathway;    attention;    neural noise;    cortical excitability;   

DOI  :  10.3390/brainsci11020263

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Dyslexia is a neurodevelopmental disorder with an atypical activation of posterior left-hemisphere brain reading networks (i.e., temporo-occipital and temporo-parietal regions) and multiple neuropsychological deficits. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a tool for manipulating neural activity and, in turn, neurocognitive processes. While studies have demonstrated the significant effects of tDCS on reading, neurocognitive changes beyond reading modulation have been poorly investigated. The present study aimed at examining whether tDCS on temporo-parietal regions affected not only reading, but also phonological skills, visuo-spatial working memory, visuo-spatial attention, and motion perception in a polarity-dependent way. In a within-subjects design, ten children and adolescents with dyslexia performed reading and neuropsychological tasks after 20 min of exposure to Left Anodal/Right Cathodal (LA/RC) and Right Anodal/Left Cathodal (RA/LC) tDCS. LA/RC tDCS compared to RA/LC tDCS improved text accuracy, word recognition speed, motion perception, and modified attentional focusing in our group of children and adolescents with dyslexia. Changes in text reading accuracy and word recognition speed—after LA/RC tDCS compared to RA/LC—were related to changes in motion perception and in visuo-spatial working memory, respectively. Our findings demonstrated that reading and domain-general neurocognitive functions in a group of children and adolescents with dyslexia change following tDCS and that they are polarity-dependent.

【 授权许可】

Unknown