Rajesh Kana, Ph.D. - US grants

ABSTRACT The overarching goal of this proposal is to test the impact of a comprehensive reading intervention program on changing the neurobiological mechanisms underlying reading comprehension deficits in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). There is evidence that as many as 65% of children with ASD have a deficit in reading comprehension. This ultimately has profound impact on language, learning, and academic success (Nation, Clarke, Wright, & Williams, 2006). Poor reading comprehension in children with autism is often masked by their relative strength in decoding. Moreover, reading comprehension in general is not well- understood, and as a result, current treatments are limited in its potential and in its effectiveness. In this project, we will test a group of children with ASD and NT control participants who share common characteristic of average level decoding along with below average reading comprehension. We also have included an additional NT group without any reading comprehension deficits, and this group will serve as another control for additional comparisons. We will test the efficacy of an intensive reading intervention training program, visualizing and verbalizing for language comprehension and thinking (V/V), and its effects on changing the brain circuitry underlying reading comprehension in children with ASD. The project will use multimodal neuroimaging with task-based functional MRI, resting state functional MRI, diffusion imaging, and neuropsychological testing. It should be noted that neuroimaging as well as behavioral studies of language in autism have largely ignored a subgroup of children with comprehension deficits. The proposed project addresses this critical gap by targeting brain plasticity in children with ASD (age: 7-13 years). Average decoding ability with below average comprehension of language in children is an important problem of academic and public health significance. The outcome of this study will throw more light on this important subgroup of children. In addition, it will test the efficacy of an intervention that can, in the long-run, help NT and disabled children with reading problems to achieve academic success. Findings may provide important preliminary steps in using V/V intervention in schools.

This award permits the University of Alabama to acquire a 3.0 Tesla Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) system. Establishing an MRI research facility at UA will be a significant new direction in human neuroscience research at UA as well as allow for collaboration with other institutions on large multi-site projects. A neuroimaging facility at UA will provide a much-needed boost to the neuroscience initiatives (e.g., graduate research in neuroscience, undergraduate neuroscience minor, undergraduate and graduate programs in educational neuroscience) at UA. The 3.0T MRI system will have a lasting impact on the field beyond the specific projects that will be initially supported and advanced. Most importantly, sharing a critical research tool like the MRI scanner creates a platform to accelerate conceptual and methodological development across neuroimaging laboratories, capitalizing on the exceptional pool of talent available at UA and other universities in the region. Building a neuroimaging research environment will be a catalyst for training undergraduate and graduate students interested in neuroscience research, including women and underrepresented minority students. This will also provide opportunities for training students from historically black colleges nearby, such as Stillman College and other such universities in the state of Alabama. Establishing a neuroimaging environment at UA will, in addition to facilitating neuroscience research, provide opportunities for the surrounding rural communities to participate in research as well as students from rural areas in Alabama.

The proposed MRI system will stimulate interdisciplinary collaborative research projects at the basic and translational levels at UA. The following research projects at UA will utilize the MRI system: 1) Multiscale neural processing and the neurobiology of language processing and reading comprehension in healthy individuals and in disorders; 2) Developing brain algorithms to improve natural language processing; 3) Neurobiological bases of mathematical cognition, with specific emphasis on embodiment of number and arithmetic; 4) Examining the cognitive and neural changes associated with healthy aging, memory and attention; 5) Investigating lifetime stress, brain aging, and the racial differences underlying brain aging; 6) Biomedical imaging analysis and development of shape-controlled magnetic nanoparticles for MRI; and 7) Developmental neurobiology of social brain in healthy individuals and in disorders. The MRI system will enhance the collaboration across different schools, colleges and departments at UA, including Psychology, Education, Communicative Disorders, Biological Sciences, and Engineering.

This project is jointly funded by the Major Research Instrumentation Program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.