Guilherme Brockington e Jorge Moll
Storytelling is a distinctive human characteristic that may have played a fundamental role in humans’ ability to bond and navigate challenging social settings throughout our evolution. However, the potential impact of storytelling on regulating physiological and psychological functions has received little attention. We investigated whether listening to narratives from a storyteller can provide beneficial effects for children admitted to intensive care units. Biomarkers (oxytocin and cortisol), pain scores, and psycholinguistic associations were collected immediately before and after storytelling and an active control intervention (solving riddles that also involved social interaction but lacked the immersive narrative aspect). Compared with the control group, children in the storytelling group showed a marked increase in oxytocin combined with a decrease in cortisol in saliva after the 30-min intervention. They also reported less pain and used more positive lexical markers when describing their time in hospital. Our findings provide a psychophysiological basis for the short-term benefits of storytelling and suggest that a simple and inexpensive intervention may help alleviate the physical and psychological pain of hospitalized children on the day of the intervention.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021)
Augusto Buchweitz
Youths who experience multiple forms of victimization are at a heightened risk for psychopathology across the lifespan. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a key target for the investigation of neurobiological changes induced by chronic stress and violence exposure. The measurement of hair cortisol concentration allows the investigation of long-term HPA activity and its association with victimization. The present study investigated the impact of exposure to polyvictimization in Latin-American children and adolescents on hair cortisol levels. We investigated association among cortisol, mental health problems and victimization. The study included 83 youths (mean age 10.84 years-old) from southern Brazil. We assessed self-reported victimization scores (Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire – JVQ-R2), mental health problems (Child Behavior Checklist – CBCL/6-18), and hair cortisol concentrations for the previous 30 days. The results showed an association between exposure to multiple forms of victimization and higher concentrations of hair cortisol; the results also showed that cortisol levels and mental health problems were associated with the severity of polyvictimization. These findings suggest that preadolescent victimization is associated with hyperactivation of HPA axis and with increased risk of mental health issues.
AugustoBuchweitz et al, International Journal on Stress Biology (2019)
Augusto Buchweitz
The study investigated exposure to violence and its association with brain function and hair cortisol concentrations in Latin‐American preadolescents. Self‐reported victimization scores (JVQ‐R2), brain imaging (fMRI) indices for a social cognition task (the ‘eyes test’), and hair cortisol concentrations were investigated, for the first time, in this population. The eyes test is based on two conditions: attributing mental state or sex to pictures of pairs of eyes (Baron‐Cohen, Wheelwright, Hill, Raste, & Plumb, 2001). The results showed an association among higher victimization scores and (a) less activation of posterior temporoparietal right‐hemisphere areas, in the mental state condition only (including right temporal sulcus and fusiform gyrus); (b) higher functional connectivity indices for the Amygdala and Right Fusiform Gyrus (RFFG) pair of brain regions, also in the mental state condition only; (c) higher hair cortisol concentrations. The results suggest more exposure to violence is associated with significant differences in brain function and connectivity. A putative mechanism of less activation in posterior right‐hemisphere regions and of synchronized Amygdala: RFFG time series was identified in the mental state condition only. The results also suggest measurable effects of exposure to violence in hair cortisol concentrations, which contribute to the reliability of self‐reported scores by young adolescents. The findings are discussed in light of the effects of exposure to violence on brain function and on social‐cognitive development in the adolescent brain
AugustoBuchweitz et al, Developmental Sciences (2019). Ler artigo
Roberto Lent e Fernanda Tovar Moll
Education is a socially structured form of learning. It involves the brains of different players – students, teachers, family members, and others – in permanent interaction. The biological set of mechanisms by which these brains receive, encode, store, and retrieve mutually exchanged information is called ‘‘neuroplasticity’’. This is the ability that enables developing and adult brains to react and adapt at different coexisting levels - from molecules to neurons, circuits, networks, persons, and societies. This article aims to discuss the major current concepts of neuroplasticity research to help policymakers, researchers, and educators bridge them to learning and teaching models and practices.
Tovar-Moll, F. & Lent, R. Prospects (2017). Ler artigo
Leonor Scliar Cabral
Examino como a neurociência contribui para o entendimento dos processos envolvidos na alfabetização e leitura e da reciclagem dos neurônios na região occipitotemporal ventral esquerda para o reconhecimento dos traços invariantes que diferenciam as letras entre si, e para o das letras e dos grafemas associados aos fonemas, com a função de distinguir significados. Dessa região há projeções para as áreas que processam a linguagem verbal e o significado: tais processamentos se dão em paralelo, com entradas e saídas simultâneas da informação. As recentes descobertas indicam os melhores métodos para a alfabetização e para o desenvolvimento das competências em leitura e escrita, pois os neurônios humanos são dotados de plasticidade para a aprendizagem de novos reconhecimentos. Cabe assinalar a reciclagem mais complexa nessa aprendizagem: ultrapassar o processamento simétrico dos sinais luminosos, para o qual os neurônios da visão são originariamente programados.
Avanços das neurociências para a alfabetização e a leitura, Letras de Hoje, ISSN 0101-335, 2013, 48(3), p.277-282. Ler artigo
Leonor Scliar Cabral
Proponho-me neste artigo, baseada nos recentes achados da neurociência, desmistificar o método global, que ainda goza de muitos adeptos no Brasil, apesar de sua condenação oficial em países como a França. Traçarei um breve histórico de seu surgimento e desdobramentos, exemplificando o uso no Brasil com algumas cartilhas. Apresentarei, a seguir, evidências empíricas das neurociências sobre os limites biológicos à captação pela retina de mais do que doze caracteres a cada fixação sobre a linha impressa e sobre como a região especializada para tal, a região occípito-temporal ventral esquerda, processa a informação escrita, demonstrando que o reconhecimento da palavra não se dá por configuração. Finalizarei asseverando que a opção por métodos fônicos não implica ignorar a existência e necessidade de processamentos top-down e em paralelo, uma vez que a leitura e sua aprendizagem se ancoram em conhecimentos prévios armazenados na memória linguística, acionados para sustentar o reconhecimento da palavra escrita. Ao final, breves considerações sobre os métodos fônicos.
A desmistificação do método global, Letras de Hoje, ISSN 0101-335, 2013, 48 (1), p. 6-11. Ler artigo
Régine Kolinsky, Rosemeire Selma Monteiro-Plantin, Elias José Mengarda, Loni Grimm-Cabral, Leonor Scliar-Cabral, José Morais
We examined the hypothesis that formal education and literacy impact the richness and precision of semantic knowledge but not the organization of semantic categories and basic mechanisms of access to them.
In Experiment 1, adults of varying levels of formal education were presented with semantic fluency tests and a superordinate naming task. Experiment 2 examined the impact of reading proficiency on adults of varying degrees of literacy. They were presented with simple semantic, alternating semantic and phonemic fluency tasks, as well as with literacy-related, reasoning and memory tests.
Fluency was analyzed in terms of overall performance, sequential order and speed of responses. Despite lower performance, illiterates and adults with null or limited formal education displayed taxonomic clustering and retrieval by semantic subcategory, as did participants with higher formal education levels. Yet, formal education and literacy slightly speed up access to categories, probably providing useful cues for generating category exemplars.
How formal education and literacy impact on the content and structure of semantic categories. Trends in Neuroscience and Education, Volume 3, Issues 3–4, September–December 2014, Pages 106-121. Ler artigo
Augusto Buchweitz
The goal of the article is to provide an account of language development in the brain using the new information about brain function gleaned from cognitive neuroscience. This account goes beyond describing the association between language and specific brain areas to advocate the possibility of predicting language outcomes using brain-imaging data. The goal is to address the current evidence about language development in the brain and prediction of language outcomes
Buchweitz A. Language and reading development in the brain today: neuromarkers and the case for prediction. J Pediatr (Rio J). 2016. Ler artigo
As neuroscience gains social traction and entices media attention, the notion that education has much to benefit from brain research becomes increasingly popular. However, it has been argued that the fundamental bridge toward education is cognitive psychology, not neuroscience.
We discuss four specific cases in which neuroscience synergizes with other disciplines to serve education, ranging from very general physiological aspects of human learning such as nutrition, exercise and sleep, to brain architectures that shape the way we acquire language and reading, and neuroscience tools that increasingly allow the early detection of cognitive deficits, especially in preverbal infants. Neuroscience methods, tools and theoretical frameworks have broadened our understanding of the mind in a way that is highly relevant to educational practice. Although the bridge’s cement is still fresh, we argue why it is prime time to march over it.
Nature Neuroscience (Print), v. 17, p. 497-502, 2014. Ler artigo
Sleep helps the consolidation of declarative memories in the laboratory, but the pro-mnemonic effect of daytime naps in schools is yet to be fully characterized. While a few studies indicate that sleep can indeed benefit school learning, it remains unclear how best to use it. Here we set out to evaluate the influence of daytime naps on the duration of declarative memories learned in school by students of 10–15 years old. A total of 584 students from 6th grade were investigated. Students within a regular classroom were exposed to a 15-min lecture on new declarative contents, absent from the standard curriculum for this age group. The students were then randomly sorted into nap and non-nap groups. Students in the nap group were conducted to a quiet room with mats, received sleep masks and were invited to sleep. At the same time, students in the non-nap group attended regular school classes given by their usual teacher (Experiment I), or English classes given by another experimenter (Experiment II). These 2 versions of the study differed in a number of ways. In Experiment I (n = 371), students were pre-tested on lecture-related contents before the lecture, were invited to nap for up to 2 h, and after 1, 2, or 5 days received surprise tests with similar content but different wording and question order. In Experiment II (n = 213), students were invited to nap for up to 50 min (duration of a regular class); surprise tests were applied immediately after the lecture, and repeated after 5, 30, or 110 days. Experiment I showed a significant ~10% gain in test scores for both nap and non-nap groups 1 day after learning, in comparison with pre-test scores. This gain was sustained in the nap group after 2 and 5 days, but in the non-nap group it decayed completely after 5 days. In Experiment II, the nap group showed significantly higher scores than the non-nap group at all times tested, thus precluding specific conclusions. The results suggest that sleep can be used to enhance the duration of memory contents learned in school.
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, v. 8, p. 103, 2014. Ler artigo
Sleep has emerged in the past decades as a key process for memory consolidation and restructuring. Given the universality of sleep across cultures, the need to reduce educational inequality, the low implementation cost of a sleep-based pedagogy, and its global scalability, it is surprising that the potential of improved sleep as a means of enhancing school education has remained largely unexploited. Students of various socio-economic status often suffer from sleep deficits. In principle, the optimization of sleep schedules both before and after classes should produce large positive benefits for learning. Here we review the biological and psychological phenomena underlying the cognitive role of sleep, present the few published studies on sleep and learning that have been performed in schools, and discuss potential applications of sleep to the school setting. Translational research on sleep and learning has never seemed more appropriate.
Trends in Neuroscience and Education, v. 3, p. 000, 2014. Ler artigo
Objetivo: Determinar a especificidade e a sensibilidade de uma medida para apontar o melhor ponto de corte para a duração de sono como preditor da sonolência diurna excessiva em adolescentes. Métodos: Participaram do estudo 1.359 adolescentes, com idades de 14 a 21 anos, de duas cidades do sul do Brasil, que responderam a questionário de hábitos de sono e sonolência diurna. Utilizou-se a Receiver Operating Characteristic para estimar a capacidade preditiva da duração de sono para a sonolência diurna excessiva. Resultados: A média de duração do sono para os adolescentes com sonolência diurna excessiva foi de 7,9 horas e para aqueles sem sonolência diurna excessiva foi de 8,33 horas (p < 0,001). A prevalência de sonolência diurna excessiva foi de 35,7%. Foi observada correlação significativa e negativa entre a duração do sono e as idades analisadas (p < 0,001). A análise de Receiver Operating Characteristic indicou duração mínima de 8,33 horas como proteção para a sonolência diurna excessiva. Conclusão: Foi observada alta prevalência de sonolência diurna excessiva e propõe-se como possível duração de sono um mínimo de 8,33 horas nos dias com aula para que os adolescentes evitem esse desfecho.
Jornal Brasileiro de Psiquiatria (UFRJ. Impresso), v. 64, p. 40-44, 2015. Ler artigo
In the past years many studies have demonstrated the role of sleep on memory consolidation. It is known that sleeping after learning a declarative or non-declarative task, is better than remaining awake. Furthermore, there are reports of a possible role for dreams in consolidation of declarative memories. Other studies have reported the effect of naps on memory consolidation. With similar protocols, another set of studies indicated that sleep has a role in creativity and problem-solving. Here we hypothesised that sleep can increase the likelihood of solving problems. After struggling to solve a video game problem, subjects who took a nap (n = 14) were almost twice as likely to solve it when compared to the wake control group (n = 15). It is interesting to note that, in the nap group 9 out 14 subjects engaged in slow-wave sleep (SWS) and all solved the problem. Surprisingly, we did not find a significant involvement of Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep in this task. Slow-wave sleep is believed to be crucial for the transfer of memory-related information to the neocortex and implement intentions. Sleep can benefit problem-solving through the generalisation of newly encoded information and abstraction of the gist. In conclusion, our results indicate that sleep, even a nap, can potentiate the solution of problems that involve logical reasoning. Thus, sleep’s function seems to go beyond memory consolidation to include managing of everyday-life events.
Plos One, v. 9, p. e84342, 2014. Ler artigo
Ability testing has been criticized because understanding of the construct being assessed is incomplete and because the testing has not yet been satisfactorily improved in accordance with new knowledge from cognitive psychology. This article contributes to the solution of this problem through the application of item response theory and Susan Embretson’s cognitive design system for test development in the development of a fluid intelligence scale. This study is based on findings from cognitive psychology; instead of focusing on the development of a test, it focuses on the definition of a variable for the creation of a criterion-referenced measure for fluid intelligence. A geometric matrix item bank with 26 items was analyzed with data from 2,797 undergraduate students. The main result was a criterion-referenced scale that was based on information from item features that were linked to cognitive components, such as storage capacity, goal management, and abstraction; this information was used to create the descriptions of selected levels of a fluid intelligence scale. The scale proposed that the levels of fluid intelligence range from the ability to solve problems containing a limited number of bits of information with obvious relationships through the ability to solve problems that involve abstract relationships under conditions that are confounded with an information overload and distraction by mixed noise. This scale can be employed in future research to provide interpretations for the measurements of the cognitive processes mastered and the types of difficulty experienced by examinees.
Psychological Assessment, v. 26, p. 774-788, 2014. Ler artigo
Dynamic testing, with an intermediate phase of assistance, measures changes between pretest and post-test assuming a common metric between them. To test this assumption we applied the Item Response Theory in the responses of 69 children to dynamic cognitive testing Children’s Analogical Thinking Modifiability Test adapted, with 12 items, totaling 828 responses, with the purpose of verifying if the original scale yields the same results as the equalized scale obtained by Item Response Theory in terms of “changes quantifying”. We followed the steps: 1) anchorage of the pre and post-test items through a cognitive analysis, finding 3 common items; 2) estimation of the items’ difficulty level parameter and comparison of those; 3) equalization of the items and estimation of “thetas”; 4) comparison of the scales. The Children’s Analogical Thinking Modifiability Test metric was similar to that estimated by the TRI, but it is necessary to differentiate the pre and post-test items’ difficulty, adjusting it to samples with high and low performance.
Estudos de Psicologia (PUCCAMP. Impresso), v. 30, p. 479-486, 2013. Ler artigo
The goal of the present review is to discuss recent cognitive neuroscientific findings concerning bilingualism. Three interrelated questions about the bilingual brain are addressed: How are multiple languages represented in the brain? how are languages controlled in the brain? and what are the real-world implications of experience with multiple languages? The review is based on neuroimaging research findings about the nature of bilingual processing, namely, how the brain adapts to accommodate multiple languages in the bilingual brain and to control which language should be used, and when. We also address how this adaptation results in differences observed in the general cognition of bilingual individuals. General implications for models of human learning, plasticity, and cognitive control are discussed.
Physics of Life Reviews (Print), v. 10, p. 428-443, 2013. Read the paper
Brain activation associated with normal and speeded comprehension of expository texts on familiar and unfamiliar topics was investigated in reading and listening. The goal was to determine how brain activation and the comprehension processes it reflects are modulated by comprehension speed and topic familiarity. Passages on more familiar topics differentially activated a set of areas in the anterior temporal lobe and medial frontal gyrus, areas often associated with text-level integration processes, which we interpret to reflect integration of previous knowledge with the passage content. Passages presented at the faster presentation resulted in more activation of a network of frontal areas associated with strategic and working-memory processes (as well as visual or auditory sensory-related regions), which we interpret to reflect maintenance of local coherence among briefly available passage segments. The implications of this research is that the brain system for text comprehension adapts to varying perceptual and knowledge conditions.
Brain and Language, v. 139, p. 49-57, 2014. Ler artigo
It has consistently been shown that agents judge the intervals between their actions and outcomes as compressed in time, an effect named intentional binding. In the present work, we investigated whether this effect is result of prior bias volunteers have about the timing of the consequences of their actions, or if it is due to learning that occurs during the experimental session. Volunteers made temporal estimates of the interval between their action and target onset (Action conditions), or between two events (No-Action conditions). Our results show that temporal estimates become shorter throughout each experimental block in both conditions. Moreover, we found that observers judged intervals between action and outcomes as shorter even in very early trials of each block. To quantify the decrease of temporal judgments in experimental blocks, exponential functions were fitted to participants’ temporal judgments. The fitted parameters suggest that observers had different prior biases as to intervals between events in which action was involved. These findings suggest that prior bias might play a more important role in this effect than calibration-type learning processes.
Consciousness and Cognition (Print), v. 22, p. 1174-1180, 2013. Ler artigo
Owing to methodological shortcomings and a certain conservatism that consolidates wrong assumptions in the literature, some dogmas have become established and reproduced in papers and textbooks, derived from quantitative features of the brain. The first dogma states that the cerebral cortex is the pinnacle of brain evolution – based on the observations that its volume is greater in more ‘intelligent’ species, and that cortical surface area grows more than any other brain region, to reach the largest proportion in higher primates and humans. The second dogma claims that the human brain contains 100 billion neurons, plus 10-fold more glial cells. These round numbers have become widely adopted, although data provided by different authors have led to a broad range of 75-125 billion neurons in the whole brain. The third dogma derives from the second, and states that our brain is structurally special, an outlier as compared with other primates. Being so large and convoluted, it is a special construct of nature, unrelated to evolutionary scaling. Finally, the fourth dogma appeared as a tentative explanation for the considerable growth of the brain throughout development and evolution – being modular in structure, the brain (and particularly the cerebral cortex) grows by tangential addition of modules that are uniform in neuronal composition. In this review, we sought to examine and challenge these four dogmas, and propose other interpretations or simply their replacement with alternative views.
European Journal of Neuroscience (Print), v. 35, p. 1-9, 2011. Ler artigo
Individuals subjected to surgical transection of the corpus callosum (“split-brains”) fail to transfer information between the cerebral hemispheres, a condition known as “disconnection syndrome.” On the other hand, subjects born without the callosum (callosal dysgenesis, CD) typically show preserved interhemispheric communication. To clarify this paradox, which has defied neuroscientists for decades, we investigated CD subjects using functional and structural neuroimaging and neuropsychological tests. Results demonstrated the existence of anomalous interhemispheric tracts that cross through the midbrain and ventral forebrain, linking the parietal cortices bilaterally. These findings provide an explanation for the preserved cross-transfer of tactile information between hemispheres in CD. We suggest that this condition is associated with extensive brain rewiring, generating a new circuitry that provides functional compensatory interhemispheric integration.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (Online), v. 111, p. 7843-7848, 2014. Ler artigo
In this methods article, we present a new implementation of a recently reported FSL-integrated neurofeedback tool, the standalone version of “Functional Real-time Interactive Endogenous Neuromodulation and Decoding” (FRIEND). We will refer to this new implementation as the FRIEND Engine Framework. The framework comprises a client-server cross-platform solution for real time fMRI and fMRI/EEG neurofeedback studies, enabling flexible customization or integration of graphical interfaces, devices, and data processing. This implementation allows a fast setup of novel plug-ins and frontends, which can be shared with the user community at large. The FRIEND Engine Framework is freely distributed for non-commercial, research purposes.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, v. 9, p. 2015.00003, 2015. Ler artigo
This Research Topic features several papers tapping the situated nature of emotion and social cognition processes. The volume covers a broad scope of methodologies [behavioral assessment, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), structural neuroimaging, event-related potentials (ERPs), brain connectivity, and peripheral measures], populations (non-human animals, neurotypical participants, developmental studies, and neuropsychiatric and pathological conditions), and article types (original research, review papers, and opinion articles). Through this wide-ranging proposal, we introduce a fresh approach to the study of contextual effects in emotion and social cognition domains. We report four levels of evidence. First, we present studies examining how cognitive and neural functions are influenced by basic affective processes (interoception, motivation and reward, emotional impulsiveness, and appraisal of violent stimuli). A second set of behavioral and neuroscientific studies addresses how performance is modulated by different emotional variables (categorical and dimensional approaches to emotion, language-as-context for emotion, emotional suppression of the attentional blink, and reappraisal effects on the up-regulation of emotions). The studies in our third selection deal with different influences in social cognition (SC) domains (human and non-human comparative studies, long-term effects of social and physical stress, developmental theory of mind, neural bases of passionate love for others, social decision making in normal and psychopathic participants, and frontal lobe contributions to psychosocial adaptation models). Finally, the fourth set of papers investigates the blending of social and emotion-related processes (valence and social salience in amygdala networks, emotional contributions to identification of genuine and faked social expressions, emotional predispositions and social decision making bias, valence of fairness and social decisions, structural neuroimaging of emotional and social impairments in neurodegenerative diseases, and subjective reactivity to emotional stimuli and their association with moral cognition). A brief summary of all these studies is offered in the following sections.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, v. 8, p. 547, 2014. Ler artigo
Este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a eficácia de um programa de estimulação cortical para crianças com Transtorno de Atenção e Hiperatividade (TDAH), que expressam corporalmente a dificuldade em manter um estado de atenção concentrado durante suas aulas. Participaram do estudo 80 crianças do sexo masculino com idade compreendida entre 8 e 11 anos, diagnosticados com TDAH e que foram avaliadas pelo aparelho ERP-P300 para identificar a eficácia da intervenção após 140 sessões de estimulação cortical. Pode-se concluir que a estimulação cortical, por via auditiva, realizada por meio de batidas binaural, mostrou-se valiosa na melhora dos níveis de atenção de crianças com TDAH.
Saúde (Santa Maria), v. 40, p. 72-76, 2014. Ler artigo
The objective of this study was to analyze first-year UFRJ medical students’ perceptions about the implementation of a blended learning (BL) experience in their Biochemistry I course. During the first semester of 2009, three Biochemistry professors used the Constructore course management system to develop virtual learning environments (VLEs) for complementing course Modules I, II, and IV, using different resources and activities. Forty-nine students (46%) took part in the study. Results show that, in general, students gave positive evaluations to their experiences with BL, indicating that the VLEs have not only motivated but also facilitated learning. Most of the students reported that access to resources in the three modules provided a more in-depth approach to Biochemistry education and greater study autonomy. Students suggested that the VLEs could be better used for promoting greater communication among participants.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education, v. 40, p. 222-228, 2012. Ler artigo
Este artigo aborda importantes desafios na construção de tarefas de avaliação da compreensão leitora, revisando dois aspectos cruciais: as demandas cognitivas presentes nas tarefas e a leiturabilidade textual. Ao longo da revisão reflete-se sobre a complexidade envolvida na avaliação da compreensão leitora juntamente com os cuidados e os critérios a serem tomados quando da construção das tarefas em relação aos dois aspectos discutidos (demandas cognitivas e leiturabilidade). Na primeira parte, o artigo apresenta diferentes tipos de tarefas que buscam investigar o produto da compreensão leitora, destacando seus objetivos e limitações. Então, discute os processos cognitivos subjacentes que influenciam no produto da compreensão leitora como o reconhecimento de palavra, o conhecimento prévio, as memórias e a habilidade de expressão verbal. Na segunda parte, aborda métodos quantitativos e qualitativos de análise da leiturabilidade dos textos, bem como os fatores que devem ser levados em consideração quando da escolha do texto para compor as tarefas avaliativas da compreensão leitora. Por fim, conclui que, apesar dos progressos da pesquisa sobre leitura nas últimas décadas, a avaliação da compreensão leitora tem incorporado poucos desses avanços. Há uma lacuna em relação a estudos integrados capazes de promover a interface entre a pesquisa em leitura e a pesquisa em avaliação da compreensão leitora.
Neuropsicologia Latinoamericana, v. 7, p. 34-46, 2015. Ler artigo
The aims of this study were to: verify performance advances in phonological awareness and writing skills in a child with Down syndrome speaking Brazilian Portuguese; identify which phonological awareness skills developed; analyze the influence of working memory skills on performance in phonological awareness tasks; verify the participant’s performance in phonological working memory tasks and verbal and execution intelligence. The child was seven years old at the onset of the study and was receiving mainstream schooling. Phonological awareness and writing skills were assessed at three time points (T1, T2, T3) during a period of 4 years and 8 months. The Phonological Awareness: Sequential Evaluation Instrument (CONFIAS) was used to assess phonological awareness. In T1 and T2, writing skills were also evaluated using the same instrument. At T3 we used the writing subtest of the Child Brief Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NEUPSILIN-INF). At T1 phonological working memory was evaluated using the word span task and at T3 we used the non-words subtest of the NEUPSILIN-INF. To evaluate verbal and performance intelligence quotient (T3) we used the Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence (WASI). Progress in writing skills and phonological awareness were identified throughout the study. Some skills in syllabic awareness also improved, but tasks that required handling of the phonemic constituents and rhyming awareness remained difficult for the patient. The participant demonstrated good performance in repeating real words. Word span of real words was superior to pseudowords span. The ability to memorize real words seemed to have improved the patient’s performance on phonological awareness tasks. The general intelligence quotient was considered borderline. It is believed that in this case, linguistic and cognitive abilities, such as verbal vocabulary, phonological working memory and intellectual capacity, influenced the performance on phonological awareness tests and enabled the child to learn written language.
Revista CEFAC (Impresso), v. 15, p. 1669-1679, 2014. Ler artigo