Clinical Research Directory

Neurocognitive Factors in EdTech Intervention Response

The current project will carry out a large-scale, randomized controlled trial (RCT) to examine the effectiveness of a home-administered technology-based treatment for reading disability (GraphoLearn) in a diagnostically diverse children with reading disability (ages 6.0-10.00). To accomplish this rapidly and with minimal cost, the experimenters will leverage the Healthy Brain Network \[HBN\], an ongoing study of mental health and learning disorders in children ages 5.0-21.0 whose family have one or more concerns about behavior and/or learning (target n = 10,000; current enrollment = 3000+). The HBN includes comprehensive psychiatric, cognitive, electroencephalogram \[EEG\] and multimodal magnetic resonance imaging \[MRI\] characterizations for all participants, providing the present work rich data to build from. The present work will recruit 450 children (ages 6.0-10.0) with reading difficulty from the HBN. In order to evaluate GraphoLearn effectiveness the experimenters will compare reading (and related language skills) before and after a 12-week GraphoLearn reading intervention relative to an active (math) control. The experimenters also assess the stability of the reading gains by including a 12 week retention period ( with pre and post retention assessment). The experimenters hypothesize that they will observe significant gains in reading (and related language) skills relative to the math control conditions, but that these gains will be variable and predicted by participant and environment level factors (predictive models are explored under Aim 2). This evaluation will involve a 3 to 4 visit between groups longitudinal study with cross over elements to evaluate GraphoLearn in struggling readers ages 6-10 using and pre-post behavioral and EEG assessment.

Executive Function in Early Childhood

Despite the fact that a substantial number of school age children struggle with both reading and math acquisition, the brain mechanisms of the overlapping aspects of reading and math skills, thought in part to be linked via executive functions (EF), have not been unpacked. This project will use a longitudinal design, following children from Kindergarten through 1st grade, to understand how the brain networks associated with reading, math, and EF interact to predict academic outcomes and, in those who struggle academically, intervention response.

Noninvasive Brain Stimulation to Enhance Reading Comprehension Ability in Adults

The goal of this project is to address the urgent need for effective, scalable adult literacy interventions by integrating breakthroughs in two separate fields: 1.) the brain network science of resilience to reading disorders and 2.) high-definition non-invasive brain network stimulation. This study will first establish the efficacy of a novel, noninvasive stimulation protocol on reading behavior and brain metrics; then will determine how stimulation-induced effects interact with baseline reading comprehension ability; and lastly, will identify whether stimulation-induced effects are more clinically-beneficial than canonical behavioral interventions. Results may change the foundation for how we treat low adult literacy, and have the potential for wider reaching impacts on non-invasive stimulation protocols for other clinical disorders.

Interventions for Reading Disabilities in NF1

Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (NF1) is a common genetic disorder that is associated with a four times greater risk of learning disabilities, including reading disabilities, and a deficiency of neurofibromin - a protein important in a signaling pathway that regulates learning and memory. Our previous work (NS49096) demonstrated that school-age children with NF+RD can respond to standard phonologically-based reading tutoring originally developed to treat reading disability in the general population. Combining our work with that by other researchers suggesting that a medication (Lovastatin) may counteract the effects of the deficient neurofibromin, and possibly ameliorate learning disabilities in NF1, the investigator propose to examine the synergistic effects of medication plus reading tutoring.

The Role of Knowledge Retrieval in Inference-making

This project will (a) examine the relationship between knowledge retrieval and inferencing; (b) determine the effectiveness of an intervention that improves knowledge retrieval and inferencing among struggling readers; and (c) expand research opportunities for undergraduates. The research design uses 316 struggling readers in grades 4-6 of diverse backgrounds. The effects of knowledge retrieval (accuracy and speed) on inferencing will be modeled without dichotomizing the distribution. Linear mixed effect models will be fit to determine whether reader characteristics make unique contributions to inferencing across the posttest and follow-up data collection time points. First, several structural models will be considered as students may be nested in teachers, schools, and tutors. Unconditional models will estimate the intraclass correlation for each level of the study design. If significant interclass correlations emerge, multilevel models will be fit to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention while controlling for covariates such as pre-test performance on inference-related measures and child-attributes such as English learner status. The primary analysis plan assumes an intent-to-treat model in which the efficacy of two intact conditions will be tested. Effect sizes will be estimated to report the magnitude of difference between the two conditions. Expected outcomes include (a) the identification of a method that effectively facilitates knowledge retrieval and the application of relevant knowledge to form inferences among elementary struggling readers from diverse backgrounds; (b) the validation of an intervention that teaches struggling readers how to activate, retrieve, and interweave relevant knowledge with information in the text and accurately form inferences while reading that can be broadly implemented in general education classrooms; and (c) expansion of undergraduate research opportunities, particularly among students from diverse backgrounds who have been historically underserved.