The quality of parent-child interaction during shared reading may influence the activation and synchronization of reading-related brain networks. But could differences in brain activity while a child is listening to stories predict parent-child interaction level during reading? For this study, functional MRI including a stories listening task was performed with 22 4-year-old girls and behavioral measurement scores reflecting parent-child interaction as well as maternal depression levels affecting these interactions were collected using video observation data of a shared reading task of these children with their mothers. The study aim was to apply the fMRI stories-listening data to create a diffusion maps algorithm and then attempt to classify the level of parent-child interaction during a shared reading task outside of the scanner. The diffusion maps algorithm successfully clustered children in this manner, with higher parent-child engagement scores related to diffusion patterns in regions of the brain known to support reading. This study demonstrates that applying this diffusion maps algorithm to brain functional connectivity data can predict parent-child interaction during shared book reading. This algorithmic approach is a potential, novel, data-driven means to quantify parent-child interaction in different contexts (e.g., reading, play) and populations.

Narrative comprehension relies on basic sensory processing abilities, such as visual and auditory processing, with recent evidence for utilizing executive functions (EF), which are also engaged during reading. EF was previously related to the “supporter” of engaging the auditory and visual modalities in different cognitive tasks, with evidence of lower efficiency in this process among those with reading difficulties in the absence of a visual stimulus (i.e. while listening to stories). The current study aims to fill out the gap related to the level of reliance on these neural circuits while visual aids (pictures) are involved during story listening in relation to reading skills. Functional MRI data were collected from 44 Hebrew-speaking children aged 8–12 years while listening to stories with vs without visual stimuli (i.e., pictures). Functional connectivity of networks supporting reading was defined in each condition and compared between the conditions against behavioral reading measures. Lower reading skills were related to greater functional connectivity values between EF networks (default mode and memory networks), and between the auditory and memory networks for the stories with vs without the visual stimulation. A greater difference in functional connectivity between the conditions was related to lower reading scores. We conclude that lower reading skills in children may be related to a need for greater scaffolding, i.e., visual stimulation such as pictures describing the narratives when listening to stories, which may guide future intervention approaches.

Background

Smart devices have become an integral part of our lives. However, research has highlighted the potential implications of smartphone presence on task performance, particularly in young children. This study aimed to determine the effect of a smartphone presence on brainwaves associated with cognitive interruption in children.

Methods

EEG data were collected from 5.3 to 8.5-year-old children performing a simple reaction time task with and without the presence of a smartphone. Theta and alpha bands were calculated, and repeated measure analysis of variance was performed to assess the impact of two conditions on alpha and theta bands: 1) with the presence and; 2) without the presence of a smartphone. EEG waveforms were also correlated with standardized cognitive measures evaluating attention abilities using Pearson correlation.

Results

Theta and alpha activity values were higher in the absence vs the presence of a smartphone, with a significant difference between theta bands for the two study conditions. Moreover, the difference between theta bands in the two conditions was significantly correlated with lower scores on an auditory attention test.

Conclusions

The existence of an interactive electronic device during cognitive tasks is associated with alterations in brain activity related to cognitive control.

Impact

The presence of a smartphone during a simple reaction time task in young children was associated with a significant decrease in frontal theta frequency.

A trend of a decreased alpha band in the presence of a smartphone.

The differences in theta and alpha frequencies between conditions were significantly correlated with lower scores in auditory and visual attention and inhibition tests.

Aim Media use in children has exploded in the past several decades, most recently fuelled by portable electronic devices. This study aims to explore differences in functional brain connectivity in children during a story-listening functional MRI (fMRI) task using data collected before (1998) and after (2013) the widespread adoption of media. Methods Cross-sectional data were collected from English-speaking 5- to 7-year-old children at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, USA, of a functional MRI narrative comprehension task completed in 1998 (n = 22) or 2013 (n = 25). Imaging data were processed using a graph theory approach, focusing on executive functions, language and visual processing networks supporting reading. Results Group differences suggest more efficient processing in the fronto-parietal network in the pre-media group while listening to stories. A modulation of the visual and fronto-parietal networks for the post-media exposure group was found. Conclusion Further studies are needed to assess effects over time in the more exposed group to discern a causal effect of portable devices on cognitive networks.

Purpose: Rhyming is a phonological skill that typically emerges in the preschool age range. Prosody/rhythm processing involves right-lateralized temporal cortex, yet the neural basis of rhyming ability in young children is unclear. The study objective was to use functional MRI (fMRI) to quantify neural correlates of rhyming abilities in preschool-age children. Method: Healthy pre-kindergarten child-parent dyads were recruited for a study visit including MRI and the Preschool and Primary Inventory of Phonological Awareness (PIPA) rhyme subtest. MRI included a fMRI task where the child listened to a rhymed and unrhymed story without visual stimuli. fMRI data were processed using the CONN functional connectivity (FC) toolbox, with FC computed between 132 regions of interest (ROI) across the brain. Associations between PIPA score and FC during the rhymed vs. unrhymed story were compared accounting for age, sex and maternal education. Results: 45 children completed MRI (age 54+8 months, 37-63; 19M 26F). Median maternal education was college graduate. FC between ROIs in posterior Default Mode (imagery) and right-Fronto-Parietal (executive function) networks was more strongly positively associated with PIPA score during the rhymed compared to the unrhymed story (F(2,39) = 10.95, p-FDR = 0.043), as was FC between ROIs in right-sided language (prosody) and Dorsal Attention networks (F(2,39) = 9.85, p-FDR = 0.044). Conclusions: Preschool-age children with better rhyming abilities had stronger FC between ROIs supporting attention and prosody, and also between ROIs supporting executive function and imagery, suggesting rhyme as a catalyst for attention, visualization and comprehension. These represent novel neural biomarkers of nascent phonological skills.

The Simple View of Reading model suggests that intact language processing and word decoding lead to proficient reading comprehension, with recent studies pointing at executive functions as an important component contributing to reading proficiency. Here, we aimed to determine the underlying mechanism(s) for these changes. Participants include 120 8- to 12-year-old children (n = 55 with dyslexia, n = 65 typical readers) trained on an executive functions–based reading program, including pre/postfunctional MRI and behavioral data collection. Across groups, improved word reading was related to stronger functional connections within executive functions and sensory networks. In children with dyslexia, faster and more accurate word reading was related to stronger functional connections within and between sensory networks. These results suggest greater synchronization of brain systems after the intervention, consistent with the “neural noise” hypothesis in children with dyslexia and support the consideration of including executive functions as part of the Simple View of Reading model.

The traditional models of reading development describe how language processing and word decoding contribute to reading comprehension and how impairments in word decoding, a defining feature of dyslexia, affect reading comprehension outcomes. However, these models do not include word and sentence reading (contextual reading) fluency, both of which engage executive functions, with notably decreased performance in children with dyslexia. In the current study, we compared cortical thickness and sulcal depth (CT/SD) in the cingulo-opercular (CO) executive functions brain network in children with dyslexia and typical readers and examined associations with word vs. contextual reading fluency. Overall, CT was lower in insular regions and higher in parietal and caudal anterior cingulate cortex regions in children with dyslexia. Children with dyslexia showed positive correlations between word reading fluency and CT/SD in insular regions, whereas no significant correlations were observed in typical readers. For sentence reading fluency, negative correlations with CT/SD were found in insular regions in children with dyslexia, while positive correlations with SD were found in insular regions in typical readers. These results demonstrate the differential relations between word and sentence reading fluency and anatomical circuitry supporting executive functions in children with dyslexia vs. typical readers. It also suggests that word and sentence reading fluency, relate to morphology of executive function-related regions in children with dyslexia, whereas in typical readers, only sentence reading fluency relates to morphology of executive function regions. The results also highlight the role of the insula within the CO network in reading fluency. Here we suggest that word and sentence reading fluency are distinct components of reading that should each be included in the Simple View of Reading traditional model.

Neural fingerprinting is a method to identify individuals from a group of people. Here, we established a new connectome-based identification model and used diffusion maps to show that biological parent–child couples share functional connectivity patterns while listening to stories. These shared fingerprints enabled the identification of children and their biological parents from a group of parents and children. Functional patterns were evident in both cognitive and sensory brain networks. Defining “typical” shared biological parent–child brain patterns may enable predicting or even preventing impaired parent–child connections that develop due to genetic or environmental causes. Finally, we argue that the proposed framework opens new opportunities to link similarities in connectivity patterns to behavioral, psychological, and medical phenomena among other populations. To our knowledge, this is the first study to reveal the neural fingerprint that represents distinct biological parent–child couples.

Narrative comprehension is a linguistic ability that emerges early in life and has a critical role in language development, reading acquisition, and comprehension. According to the Simple View of Reading model, reading is acquired through word decoding and linguistic comprehension. Here, within and between networks, functional connectivity in several brain networks supporting both language and reading abilities was examined from prereading to proficient reading age in 32 healthy children, ages 5–18 years, scanned annually while listening to stories over 12 years. Functional connectivity changes within and between the networks were assessed and compared between the years using hierarchical linear regression and were related to reading abilities. At prereading age, the networks related to basic language processing accounted for 32.5% of the variation of reading ability at reading age (at 12–14 years) (R2 = 0.325, p = 0.05). At age 17, more complex cognitive networks were involved and accounted for 97.4% of the variation in reading ability (R2 = 0.974, p = 0.022). Overall, networks composing the future-reading network are highly involved in processing narratives along development; however, networks related to semantic, phonological, and syntactic processing predict reading ability earlier in life, and more complex networks predict reading proficiency later in life.

The American Association of Pediatrics recommends reading to young children from birth as a method of exposing children to language and literacy as early as possible. This article describes the known neurobiological support for this recommendation—also addressing the differential effects of parental versus stranger reading as well as other factors, that is, pathological conditions, that may influence the contributions of the recommended early reading interactions. Finally, the possible effects of screen exposure on parent–child interaction around the book will be discussed to inform new possible policies.