Neurofunctional Correlates of the Behavioral Modifications Associated With Tachidino in Children With Developmental Dyslexia

NCT ID: NCT05373576

Last Updated: 2022-05-20

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 30 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2022-01-02
• Study Completion Date: 2023-12-31

Brief Summary

Developmental dyslexia (DD) is the most common learning disorder. Multiple cognitive and sensory domains contribute to the etiology of DD and develop before reading acquisition. Atypical brain functional responses and structural features have been found in the reading developing circuitry. Treatments addressing visual-spatial attention and motion perception (Visual Attention Training; VAT) are among the most effective interventions in Italian children with DD. The VAT seems to improve the efficiency of the visual attention system and the magnocellular (M) pathway which is crucial for learning to read. Evidence for impaired M function in subjects with DD in the visual striate and extra-striate cortex have been reported. How these treatments affect the brain functionality is still not clear. Since DD has a neurobiological basis, it is important to deeply investigate atypical functional responses and structural features in reading-related areas, and to understand how treatments operate at the neuronal level. A growing number of studies investigates structural and functional measures in neurodevelopmental disorders by using high-resolution MRI at high field (3T and 7T). Similarly, several studies examine the effects of different types of reading training upon brain activity. Better understanding of the relationship between structural/functional abnormalities and DD could disentangle the causes of reading difficulties and helps in developing effective treatments.

The significance of this study is twofold: 1) NEURAL CORRELATES OF TREATMENT: The investigators expect TACHIDINO to specifically affect the underlying neurophysiological functioning which influences reading skills in children with DD; 2) BRAIN SIGNATURES: As integrated multi-domain data (behavioral and brain imaging) are complementary to each other, they could enhance the possibility to find unique treatment/brain functioning combinations to evaluate the effectiveness of intervention and to predict the treatment response.

Conditions

Dyslexia, Developmental

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

TACHIDINO

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

TACHIDINO

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

TACHIDINO is based on two principles a) selective stimulation of a cerebral hemisphere and specific reading strategies, and b) the training of selective visuospatial attention, as well as the perception of rapid movement and the visual characteristics of words even in the presence of so-called visual crowding or "crowding", an automatic effect of our perceptual system that leads to "obfuscation" of the visual areas surrounding the object to be analyzed, to make its vision clearer (as suggested by the "Magnocellular theory" of dyslexia; Stein et al., 2019).

WAITING LIST

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

TACHIDINO

TACHIDINO is based on two principles a) selective stimulation of a cerebral hemisphere and specific reading strategies, and b) the training of selective visuospatial attention, as well as the perception of rapid movement and the visual characteristics of words even in the presence of so-called visual crowding or "crowding", an automatic effect of our perceptual system that leads to "obfuscation" of the visual areas surrounding the object to be analyzed, to make its vision clearer (as suggested by the "Magnocellular theory" of dyslexia; Stein et al., 2019).

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Reading skills (both accuracy and speed) below -2.00 standard deviation

Exclusion Criteria

• No ADHD
• No contraindications to magnetic resonance

• Minimum Eligible Age: 8 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 12 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

IRCCS Eugenio Medea

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Locations

Scientific Institute IRCCS Eugenio Medea

Bosisio Parini, LC, Italy

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

Italy

Central Contacts

Sara Mascheretti, PhD

Role: CONTACT

sara.mascheretti@lanostrafamiglia.it

+39031877924

Facility Contacts

Sara Mascheretti, PhD

Role: primary

sara.mascheretti@lanostrafamiglia.it

+39031877924

Other Identifiers

877

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id