Latest Research – Your Brain on Audiobooks [Premium]

Latest Research – Your Brain on Audiobooks [Premium]

by | May 23, 2016 | , ,

 This is pretty cool research. When we listen to stories, we maybe transported to a different place and time, living in the heads of characters, and immersing ourselves in another world. What does that look like in our brains? We have a clearer answer now from brain researchers in the Netherlands, and besides seeing how different areas “light up” or don’t, it now appears that there are often strong individual preferences among individuals as to whether they are “mentalizers” or “sensory-motor” listeners. In this research paper, mentalizers were defined as those who preferentially active ‘Theory of Mind’ areas associated with thinking about other peoples’ thoughts and beliefs, whereas motor listeners were most reactive to action descriptions. From previous studies, researchers learned that if you read the work […]

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New Research: Brain Scans Predict Cognitive Performance [Premium]

New Research: Brain Scans Predict Cognitive Performance [Premium]

by | May 13, 2016 | , , , ,

“This suggests that individual differences in many cognitive tasks are a stable trait marker.”   There’s a new Oxford research study circulating through scientific communities and around the world. From Science (Task-free MRI predicts individual differences in brain activity during task performance), Tavor and collegues applied machine-learning principles to test subjects in a “resting state” to see how they could predict their performances on various cognitive tasks. What was the result? They could predict subject’s responses in 46 out of 47 tasks (and maybe there’s a reason why the 47th one didn’t work…it involved more subcortical activity). Tasks included responses to mental math, sentence and story processing, but also higher order problem solving, social perception, and working memory. The data have a lot of ramifications in […]

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This is Your Brain on Words [Premium]

This is Your Brain on Words [Premium]

by | Apr 28, 2016 | , , , , ,

In breaking research from UC Berkeley, researchers have found a complicated filing system when it comes to how we process words that we hear. While listening to stories, individual words triggered tiny activation explosions all over the brain associated with word associations – “Words were grouped under various headings: visual, tactile, numeric, locational, abstract, temporal, professional, violent, communal, mental, emotional and social.” So a well-working human brain responding to stories functions more like a wall filled with stickie notes rather than a linear filing cabinet?  Which sounds more like the dyslexic way of wiring?  Check out the video explanation below. The finding certainly points out the fallacy of viewing language in simple right-brain-left brain terms, but it does support the complexity of language and the right-left […]

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Count on Your Fingers – It Helps with Math

Count on Your Fingers – It Helps with Math

by | Apr 26, 2016 |

The researchers found that when 8-to-13-year-olds were given complex subtraction problems, the somatosensory finger area lit up, even though the students did not use their fingers. This finger-representation area was, according to their study, also engaged to a...

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Latest Research: Advances in our Understanding of Dyslexia, ADHD, and Giftedness [Premium]

Latest Research: Advances in our Understanding of Dyslexia, ADHD, and Giftedness [Premium]

by | Apr 7, 2016 | , , , , , , , ,

It’s long been known that Dyslexia and ADD / ADHD have high rates of overlaps or “co-morbidities”. Dyslexia and ADHD co-occur 30-50% of the time (Germano, 2010) and only 40% of children with dyslexia and 20% of children with ADD/ADHD have it in isolation (Wilcutt and Pennington, 2000). Science has progressed on many fronts over the past 5 years, and both attention and dyslexia are now known to be much more complex than originally suspected. It has long been known that dyslexia is associated with attention and working memory differences, and that reading, writing, and spelling difficulties are higher among children identified as having ADHD. Both Dyslexia and ADD / ADHD are associated with slower processing speeds and both seem to be connected with the […]

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Higher Creativity of Dyslexic Children and Adolescents – New Research [Premium]

Higher Creativity of Dyslexic Children and Adolescents – New Research [Premium]

by | Mar 25, 2016 | , , , , , , ,

 “…dyslexic children around the age of 10 years old were found to be particularly creative in our study…” – Kapoula et al. University Paris PLOS One 2016: 11(3). From creativity researchers in Europe, some striking new information about how well dyslexic students and adolescents performed on the Torrance Test of Creativity Thinking compared to non-dyslexic peers. Particularly large differences were noted in the areas of originality and elaboration. Figure 1 shows A, the test prompt, B, the drawing from an art student, C, a drawing from a non-dyslexic student, and D, a drawing from a dyslexic student. “When comparing the most creative group of students (i.e., from ENSAD) and the most creative group of dyslexic children and teenagers (i.e., from BRUXELLES) (Fig 2F, Table 9), the only […]

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This is Your Brain on Phonics – fMRI and Dyslexia [Premium Subscription]

This is Your Brain on Phonics – fMRI and Dyslexia [Premium Subscription]

by | Jan 26, 2016 | , , , ,

One of the greatest neuromyths about dyslexia is that it’s just about reading. Kudos to the Gabrieli lab (and many others) who are unraveling the differences that exist between dyslexic and non-dyslexic children because the science can inform us about what we may need to do as teachers and tutors. In the following article, we’ll share recent brain research that shows that dyslexic children ‘hear’ or processing sounds differently. Instead of activating a left hemispheric area, they activate the right temporoparietal cortex, a part of the brain important for multisensory integration and imitation. ** To read more,  log into your Premium account or become a Premium Subscriber here or. Thank you for your support! Bookmark Please login to bookmark ClosePlease login to access.

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The Wisdom of Pooh and Dyslexia

The Wisdom of Pooh and Dyslexia

by | Jan 25, 2016 | , , , , , , , ,

“You are braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – A.A. Milne Winnie the Pooh’s advice is smarter than we may think when it comes to encouraging young readers. What’s better than reading intervention and working memory training?  Reading intervention and working memory + education about intelligence. If students believe they are not intelligent or bad at school, that negative mindset is likely to sabotage even well-planned educational programs. Students who believe that they become more intelligent step-by-step by persistence and hard work, are significantly higher achieving in reading and working memory, but also math and science. Now researchers are discovering that some studies that didn’t discover significant improvements in working memory training may have been due to this […]

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The Truth About Multi-Tasking | Premium

The Truth About Multi-Tasking | Premium

by | Jan 13, 2016 | , , , , ,

Are you a good multi-tasker?  If you answered ‘yes’, scientists at Stanford might disagree with you. When students from Stanford participated in a multitasking experiment with color bars, those who multitasked with more media had more trouble ignoring irrelevant stimuli. Multi-Tasking Has Its Costs     From the report: “Heavy Media Multitaskers have greater difficulty filtering out irrelevant stimuli from their environment..and they are less effective in suppressing the activation of irrelevant task sets (task switching). Dyslexics as a group are more sensitive to visual and auditory distractions As a group, dyslexic people are more likely to be sensitive to distractions (both visual and auditory) which is why some students request and receive small group testing accommodations for high stakes tests.  To learn more about trouble […]

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