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Review
. 2018 Jul 4:12:25.
doi: 10.3389/fnint.2018.00025. eCollection 2018.

A Translational Framework of Educational Neuroscience in Learning Disorders

Thomas Dresler  1   2 , Stephanie Bugden  3   4 , Camilo Gouet  5 , Marie Lallier  6 , Darlene G Oliveira  7 , Pedro Pinheiro-Chagas  8   9 , Ana C Pires  10 , Yunqi Wang  11 , Camila Zugarramurdi  6   10 , Janaina Weissheimer  12
Affiliations
Review

A Translational Framework of Educational Neuroscience in Learning Disorders

Thomas Dresler et al. Front Integr Neurosci. .

Abstract

Neuroimaging has undergone enormous progress during the last two and a half decades. The combination of neuroscientific methods and educational practice has become a focus of interdisciplinary research in order to answer more applied questions. In this realm, conditions that hamper learning success and have deleterious effects in the population - such as learning disorders (LD) - could especially profit from neuroimaging findings. At the moment, however, there is an ongoing debate about how far neuroscientific research can go to inform the practical work in educational settings. Here, we put forward a theoretical translational framework as a method of conducting neuroimaging and bridging it to education, with a main focus on dyscalculia and dyslexia. Our work seeks to represent a theoretical but mainly empirical guide on the benefits of neuroimaging, which can help people working with different aspects of LD, who need to act collaboratively to reach the full potential of neuroimaging. We provide possible ideas regarding how neuroimaging can inform LD at different levels within our multidirectional framework, i.e., mechanisms, diagnosis/prognosis, training/intervention, and community/education. In addition, we discuss methodological, conceptual, and structural limitations that need to be addressed by future research.

Keywords: dyscalculia; dyslexia; education; learning disorders; neuroimaging; translational framework.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
The theoretical translational framework on how EN can inform LD.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Simplified illustration of the location of involved cortical areas in the two LD dyscalculia [upper panel, from Bugden and Ansari (2015)] and dyslexia [lower panel, according to Richlan et al. (2009); Raschle et al. (2011) and Lallier and Carreiras (2017)]. AG, angular gyrus; IFG, inferior frontal gyrus; IPS, intraparietal sulcus; MTG, middle temporal gyrus; OTC, occipito-temporal cortex (comprising lateral extrastriate, fusiform, and inferior temporal regions); SG, supramarginal gyrus; SPL, superior parietal lobe; TPC, temporo-parietal cortex [comprising posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG), inferior parietal lobe].
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Longitudinal perspective of the translational framework. Please note that arrows connecting the components between different time-points have been omitted for clarity. Foci of the framework will change across time/age according to the respective requirements.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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