Treino musical e capacidade da memória operacional em crianças iniciantes, veteranas e sem conhecimentos musicais

A memória operacional e a atividade musical ativam áreas encefálicas recíprocas e homólogas, contudo não há evidências se o treino musical pode ampliar a capacidade da memória operacional. Objetivo: Avaliar o desempenho do treino musical sob a memória operacional em crianças de 9 e 10 anos de idade, praticantes de treino musical e sem experiência musical. PARTICIPANTES: Crianças Iniciantes (n=20), Veteranas (n=20) e Grupo Controle (n=20). MATERIAIS: Instrumentos computadorizados para avaliação da memória operacional. RESULTADOS: Crianças veteranas apresentaram melhores pontuações no BCPR (Teste de Repetição de Pseudopalavras para crianças brasileiras) e em subtestes da AWMA (Avaliação Automatizada da Memória Operacional). CONCLUSÃO: O treino musical parece ter contribuído para o desenvolvimento da memória operacional em crianças veteranas no programa de treino musical.

Desempenho em consciência fonológica, memória operacional, leitura e escrita na dislexia familial

Background: familial dyslexia. Aim: to characterize and compare the phonological awareness, working memory, reading and writing abilities of individuals whose family members are also affected. Method: in this study 10 familial nuclei of natural family relationship of individuals with dyslexia were analyzed. Families of natural individuals living in the west region of the state of São Paulo were selected. Inclusion criteria were: to be a native speaker of the Brazilian Portuguese language, to have 8 years of age or more, to present positive familial history for learning disabilities, That is, to present at least one relative with difficulties in learning. Exclusion criteria were: to present any neurological disorder genetically caused or not, in any of the family members, such as dystonia, extra pyramidal diseases, mental disorder, epilepsy, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHA); psychiatric symptoms or conditions; or any other pertinent conditions that could cause errors in the diagnosis. As for the diagnosis of developmental dyslexia, information about the familial history of the adolescents and children was gathered with the parents, so that a detailed pedigree could be delineated. Neurological, psychological, speech-language, and school performance evaluations were made with the individuals and their families. Results: the results of this study suggest that the dyslexic individuals and their respective relatives, also with dyslexia, presented lower performances than the control group in terms of rapid automatic naming, reading, writing and phonological awareness. Conclusion: deficits in phonological awareness, working memory, reading and writing seem to have genetic susceptibility that possibly determine, when in interaction with the environment, the manifestation of dyslexia.

Hallazgos de neuroimagen y desempeño ortográfi co de estudiantes con trastorno por défi cit de atención con hiperactividad según la semiología de los errores

Aim: To characterize, compare and classify the performance of students with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) according to the semiology of errors and to describe the neuroimaging findings in these students. Methods: We evaluated 36 primary school boys and girls aged between 8 and 11 years old in the 3 rd to 5 th grades. The children were divided in two groups. Group I consisted of 18 students with an interdisciplinary diagnosis of ADHD (60% boys and 40% girls). Group II consisted of 18 children with good academic performance, paired by gender, age and grade with children in group I. The collective and individual versions of the Pro-ortografia spelling tests were applied. Results: Statistically significant differences were found in almost all the tests of the individual and collective versions of the spelling evaluation, with children with ADHD showing a higher average number of errors. Neuroimaging examinations indicated that 81% of the students in GI showed hypoperfusion in the frontal lobe, 7% had hypoperfusion of the thalamus and basal ganglia, 6% showed hypoperfusion in the basal ganglia only and 6% showed hypoperfusion in the left and right frontal lobes. Conclusions: Children with ADHD demonstrated poorer knowledge of the use of spelling rules in Brazilian Portuguese, which could be related to changes in blood flow in the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, thalamus and basal ganglia. These changes could cause a lack of attention, affecting phonological working memory and the planning of writing. © 2011 AELFA.

Percepção de tempo e outras funções cognitivas, funcionalidade motora e o nível de atividade física de idosos com Doença de Alzheimer no estágio leve

Pós-graduação em Ciências da Motricidade - IBRC

Influência do exercício físico em memória e funções executivas de pessoas com doença de Parkinson

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Instrumentalização pedagógica para avaliação de crianças com risco de dislexia

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

O efeito do treino musical sobre a capacidade da memória operacional e da cognição numérica de crianças com discalculia do desenvolvimento

Pós-graduação em Psicologia do Desenvolvimento e Aprendizagem - FC

Habilidades matemáticas e memória operacional em crianças de 7 a 12 anos infectadas pelo HIV por transmissão vertical, em estado assintomático

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Efeito do ambiente sobre o período crítico de plasticidade do córtex pré-frontal de ratos

O período crítico de plasticidade do córtex cerebral é a etapa do desenvolvimento pós-natal do sistema nervoso onde os circuitos neurais são mais suscetíveis à mudanças influenciadas por informações oriundas do ambiente. No córtex pré-frontal de humanos, responsável pelas funções executivas, o período crítico de plasticidade estende-se desde o nascimento até o final da adolescência e início da vida adulta. Isto é definido, entre outros fatores, pelo amadurecimento das redes perineuronais, uma estrutura especializada da matriz extracelular, localizada em volta do corpo celular e dendritos proximais de interneurônios inibitórios. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi verificar o efeito do ambiente em etapas distintas da adolescência sobre a estrutura e a função do córtex pré-frontal de ratos e a distribuição da expressão espacial e temporal das redes perineuronais sob estas condições. As funções executivas foram avaliadas através de testes comportamentais medindo a capacidade de memória operacional e a inibição comportamental. Observamos que estímulos estressores crônicos imprevisíveis provocam alterações no período crítico de plasticidade do córtex pré-frontal e, consequentemente, influenciam o amadurecimento das funções executivas. Observamos também que o estresse crônico induz modificação no padrão de amadurecimento das redes perineuronais no córtex pré-frontal. Estes resultados indicam a vulnerabilidade do córtex pré-frontal de ratos adolescentes para os efeitos negativos de estímulos ambientais estressores sobre o período crítico de plasticidade.

Correlações entre sono-vigília, memória e melatonina em Síndrome de Williams-Beuren

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Desenvolvimento de ferramentas pedagógicas para identificação de escolares de risco para a dislexia

PURPOSE: The development and application of collective pedagogical activities to assess phonological skills in pre-readers and beginning readers and could serve as potential screening tools to help in the early identification of students at risk for dyslexia. METHODS: The FAE tasks (alternative tools for educators) were built on classical phonological tasks known as sound categorization and in the Protocol for Cognitive-Linguistic Skills. FAE tasks basically consisted of matching pictures as well as pictures to spoken words according to their phonological similarity in the onset (alliteration) or rhyme and were given to 45 students on the first grade, of both genres and 7.3 years old on average. RESULTS: The protocol proved to be effective, confirming that phonological awareness, verbal working memory and rapid naming abilities constitute the main risk factors for dyslexia, and to which the FAE tasks were more strongly correlated jointly with the phonemic discrimination. FAE tasks were also strongly correlated with literacy skills. CONCLUSIONS: Students at risk for dyslexia can be efficiently identified through scientifically developed pedagogical tools, adapted and tested for the Brazilian's educational reality. This is a promising research field with the potential to help in avoiding the currently excessive number of students mistakenly labeled as having learning disabilities and improperly referred to specialized public services, as well as to indicate the more appropriate theoretical-empirical framework to guide our educational policies.

Treino musical como proposta para a estimulação da cognição numérica em crianças de idade escolar

Pós-graduação em Psicologia do Desenvolvimento e Aprendizagem - FC

Como os sintomas de transtornos mentais e comportamentais influenciam a memória operacional de universitários?

Pós-graduação em Psicologia do Desenvolvimento e Aprendizagem - FC

Development of numerical cognition among Brazilian school-aged children

The Numerical Cognition is influenced by biological, cognitive, educational, and cultural factors and entails the following systems: Number Sense (NS) represents the innate ability to recognize, compare, add, and subtract small quantities, without the need of counting; Number Production (NP) which includes reading, writing and counting numbers or objects; Number Comprehension (NC), i.e., the understanding the nature of the numerical symbols and their number, and the calculation (CA). The aims of the present study were to: i) assess theoretical constructs (NS, NC, NP and CA) in children from public schools from 1 st -to 6 th - grades; and ii) investigate their relationship with schooling and working memory. The sample included 162 children, both genders, of 7-to 12-years-old that studied in public school from 1 st -to 6 th -grades, which participated in the normative study of Zareki-R (Battery of neuropsychological tests for number processing and calculation in children, Revised; von Aster & Dellatolas, 2006). Children of 1 st and 2 nd grades demonstrated an inferior global score in NC, NP and CA. There were no genderrelated differences. The results indicated that the contribution of NS domain in Zareki-R performance is low in comparison to the other three domains, which are dependent on school-related arithmetic skills.

Cognição Numérica de crianças pré-escolares brasileiras pela ZAREKI-K

The Numerical Cognition is infl uenced by biological, cognitive, educational and cultural factors. It consists of a primary system, called Number Sense that would be innate and universal, also of secondary systems: the Calculation, implied to perform mathematical operations by means of symbols or words and Number Processing, which is divided into two components, Number Comprehension, related with the understanding of numerical symbols and Number Production, which includes reading, writing and coun-ting numbers. However, studies that show the development of these functions in children of preschool age are scarce. Therefore, aims of this study were to investigate numerical cognition in preschool Brazilian children to demonstrate the construct validity of the ZAREKI-K (A Neuropsychological Battery for the Assessment of Treatment of Numbers and Calculation for preschool children). The participants were 42 children of both genders, who attended public elementary schools; the children were evaluated by this battery and WISC-III. The results indicated signifi cant differences associated with age which children of 6 years had better scores on subtests related to Number Production, Calculation and Number Comprehension, as well moderate and high correlations between some subtests of both instruments, demonstrating the construct validity of the battery. In conclusion, preliminary normative data were obtained for ZAREKI-K. The analyses suggested that it is a promising tool for the assessment of numerical cognition in preschool children.Keywords: Mathematics, number, preschoolers, working memory, Developmental Dyscalculia.