Changes in the superior longitudinal fasciculus and anterior thalamic radiation in the left brain are associated with developmental dyscalculia.

Developmental dyscalculia is a neurodevelopmental disorder specific to arithmetic learning even with normal intelligence and age-appropriate education. Difficulties often persist from childhood through adulthood lowering the individual's quality of life. However, the neural correlates of developmental dyscalculia are poorly understood. This study aimed to identify brain structural connectivity alterations in developmental dyscalculia. All participants were recruited from a large scale, non-referred population sample in a longitudinal design. We studied 10 children with developmental dyscalculia (11.3 ± 0.7 years) and 16 typically developing peers (11.2 ± 0.6 years) using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. We assessed white matter microstructure with tract-based spatial statistics in regions-of-interest tracts that had previously been related to math ability in children. Then we used global probabilistic tractography for the first time to measure and compare tract length between developmental dyscalculia and typically developing groups. The high angular resolution diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging and crossing-fiber probabilistic tractography allowed us to evaluate the length of the pathways compared to previous studies. The major findings of our study were reduced white matter coherence and shorter tract length of the left superior longitudinal/arcuate fasciculus and left anterior thalamic radiation in the developmental dyscalculia group. Furthermore, the lower white matter coherence and shorter pathways tended to be associated with the lower math performance. These results from the regional analyses indicate that learning, memory and language-related pathways in the left hemisphere might be related to developmental dyscalculia in children.

Latent profile analysis of COVID-19 fear, depression, anxiety, stress, mindfulness, and resilience.

The purpose of the current study was to identify latent profiles of COVID-19 fear, depression, anxiety, stress, mindfulness, and resilience among university students. A total of 506 university undergraduate and graduate students from various universities were recruited through online platforms in Turkey. Data were collected utilizing self-report scales and were analyzed utilizing latent profile analysis. Results indicated significant relationships among COVID-19 fear, depression, anxiety, stress, resilience, and mindfulness. A three-class solution was adapted to fit the current data. Findings revealed that 46% of the participants were classified into the high COVID-19 fear and medium psychological symptoms profile. Also, 38% of the participants were identified as low psychological symptoms and high mindfulness and resilience. Additionally, 16% of the participants were classified as high COVID-19 fear, psychological symptoms and low mindfulness and resilience. Female gender was positively associated with COVID-19 fear, depression, anxiety, and stress. Life satisfaction and social support were positively associated with the mindfulness and resilience, and were negatively related to COVID-19 fear, depression, anxiety, and stress.

Children With Dyscalculia Show Hippocampal Hyperactivity During Symbolic Number Perception.

Dyscalculia is a learning disability affecting the acquisition of arithmetical skills in children with normal intelligence and age-appropriate education. Two hypotheses attempt to explain the main cause of dyscalculia. The first hypothesis suggests that a problem with the core mechanisms of perceiving (non-symbolic) quantities is the cause of dyscalculia (core deficit hypothesis), while the alternative hypothesis suggests that dyscalculics have problems only with the processing of numerical symbols (access deficit hypothesis). In the present study, the symbolic and non-symbolic numerosity processing of typically developing children and children with dyscalculia were examined with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Control (n = 15, mean age: 11.26) and dyscalculia (n = 12, mean age: 11.25) groups were determined using a wide-scale screening process. Participants performed a quantity comparison paradigm in the fMRI with two number conditions (dot and symbol comparison) and two difficulty levels (0.5 and 0.7 ratio). The results showed that the bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS), left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and left fusiform gyrus (so-called "number form area") were activated for number perception as well as bilateral occipital and supplementary motor areas. The task difficulty engaged bilateral insular cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, IPS, and DLPFC activation. The dyscalculia group showed more activation in the left orbitofrontal cortex, left medial prefrontal cortex, and right anterior cingulate cortex than the control group. The dyscalculia group showed left hippocampus activation specifically for the symbolic condition. Increased left hippocampal and left-lateralized frontal network activation suggest increased executive and memory-based compensation mechanisms during symbolic processing for dyscalculics. Overall, our findings support the access deficit hypothesis as a neural basis for dyscalculia.

Psychometric liability to psychosis and childhood adversities are associated with shorter telomere length: A study on schizophrenia patients, unaffected siblings, and non-clinical controls.

Compared to the general population, individuals diagnosed with Schizophrenia (SCZ) experience a higher frequency and an earlier onset of chronic medical disorders, resulting in a reduction in life expectancy by an average of 15-25 years. Recently, it has been hypothesized that SCZ is a syndrome of accelerated aging. Childhood adversity was also associated with the pathogenesis and course of SCZ. Our hypothesis was that both SCZ patients and their unaffected siblings would have shorter telomere length (TL) compared to of non-clinical controls. Our additional goals were to determine (1) whether shorter TL correlates with intermediate phenotypes of SCZ (i.e. Psychosis-like symptoms and schizotypal traits); and (2) whether childhood adversities have a moderating role in TL shortening among SCZ and their unaffected siblings. To this end, SCZ patients (n = 100), their unaffected siblings (n = 100) and non-clinical controls (n = 100) were enrolled. The main variables were TL, measured by aTL-qPCR; psychotic-like and schizotypal symptoms, assessed by The Community Assessment of Psychic Experience (CAPE) and the Structured Interview for Schizotypy-Revised (SIS-R), respectively; and childhood adversities evaluated by the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse (CECA)-Interview. Potentially relevant variables also included in the analyses were: Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scores, cognitive performance, and socio-demographic features. In contrast to our hypothesis patients had similar TL when compared to the non-clinical controls. Interestingly, unaffected siblings had longer TL compared to both patients and controls (p < 0.001). Independent from group status a negative correlation was observed between TL and psychotic-like symptoms as rated by the CAPE (p < 0.01). Childhood adversities, especially loneliness between ages 0 and 11 were also negatively associated with TL (p < 0.05). Our findings suggest that psychometric liability to psychosis and childhood adversities may be associated with shorter TL. Unaffected siblings had longer TL, suggesting the potential role of resilience on both the TL and the clinical presentation. These findings must be considered preliminary, calling for larger-scale replication efforts.

Cognitive Features of High-functioning Adults with Autism and Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders.

OBJECTIVE: Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia share common features in terms of pathophysiology and clinical appearance. Cognitive deficits are also present in both disorders. However, ASD and schizophrenia are heterogeneous syndromes, and  few  studies  have addressed patients with these disorders who have above average educational attainment. In this study, we assessed the cognitive functions of a group of adult ASD patients with adequate mental development and verbal communication skills (High Functioning Autism, HFA) and compared them with a group of Schizophrenia patients matched for level of education. METHOD: Three groups of patients and controls [(HFA, n= 32), Schizophrenia (n= 17), Controls (n= 23)], all with at least a high school education, were assessed with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT). For the assessment of HFA, scores on the Autism Spectrum Disorders in Adults Screening Questionnaire were taken into consideration. Clinical diagnoses were based on DSM-IV TR and DSM-5 criteria. RESULTS: High Functioning Autism and Schizophrenia groups performed similarly in all subtests except for WAIS Comprehension and Digit Symbol, WCST Perseveration, and RAVLT Learning. CONCLUSION: Comprehension abilities of educated adults with HFA could be higher than average in situations that do not involve social interaction. Tendency to perseveration in the presence of adequate concept formation ability may reflect the clinical symptoms of rigidity and repetitive behavior. In patients with higher levels of functioning and education, their diagnosis appears to be weakly associated with cognitive functioning. The potential roles of other variables, such as environmental factors, during development deserve further exploration in future studies.