Correlation Between the Cortical Activation Studied by Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy Neuroimaging (fNIRS) With Performance of 3rd Grade Students

Correlation Between the Cortical Activation Studied by Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy Neuroimaging (fNIRS) With Performance of 3rd Grade Students

Elazab Mohamed Elazab Elshazly (United Arab Emirates University, UAE), Hussein Mostafa (McGill University, Canada), and Mohammed F. Safi (Fontbonne University, USA)
Copyright: © 2024 |Pages: 16
DOI: 10.4018/IJTEE.357995
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Abstract

The cortical activation and performance of 3rd grade students were investigated using Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during reading Arabic language. The main cortical activation parameter tested was hemoglobin difference (HbDiff), while the performance was evaluated according to the number of committed errors and latency. The recorded HbDiff concentrations for the typically developed (TD) were significantly higher (0.05) than that of students with dyslexia (Dys), confirming higher brain activities for TD students. TD students committed less errors and need less time to finish the task. Moreover, Pearson correlation analysis performed showed that there was a negative correlation between cortical activation parameters and performance. Limited studies explored the use of fNIRS to investigate the cortical activation of Arabic students' brains or correlated between the cortical activation and performance variables. Therefore, this current research is novel and showed the potential utilization of the fNIRS in the field of educational neuroscience.
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Introduction

An alarming number of primary school students are facing difficulties when reading, writing, and spelling, which can be attributed to the prevalence of dyslexia (Meisinger et al., 2022; Stevani & Tarigan, 2022; Tsai, 2022). Students with dyslexia underperform when reading and spelling words that are not explained by general intellectual disability (Kearns et al., 2019; Miciak & Fletcher, 2020). Therefore, students with dyslexia have to work extra hard to catch up to their normally-reading classmates (Ozernov & Gaab, 2016). Dyslexia is typically not identified until a child has failed to make enough progress in reading, usually by the end of the second grade. Hence, finding a tool or device that can help identify signs of dyslexia is much needed in the educational system (Ozernov et al., 2022). It is vital for instructors to be aware of the most recent discoveries in brain science and how they relate to their work with children who struggle with dyslexia so that they can assess the effectiveness of various instructional strategies. A previous study on brain imaging reported that teaching the alphabet has altered the activation patterns of children's brains (James et al., 2016).

Cognitive abilities, ranging from sensory processing to higher order thinking and problem solving, are all called into play throughout the reading process. Reading engages many brain regions simultaneously, creating a highly interconnected neural network (Berl et al., 2010; Binder et al., 2003; Hillesund et al., 2022; Hofmann et al., 2008; Pugh et al., 2001). Prior research has shown a connection between the frontal lobe (the seat of executive functions, including memory and attention) and the act of reading (Binder et al., 2003; Fiebach et al., 2007). Differences in the pre-reading skills that provide the groundwork for reading and the brain areas that support those abilities are strongly linked to dyslexia (D'Mello & Gabrieli, 2018). The amplitudes of electroencephalographic following the commission of a mistake show that persons with dyslexia commit more errors than age-matched normal readers (Horowitz-Kraus & Breznitz, 2014).

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