Non-invasive Electrical Brain Stimulations Reduces Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a developmental reading disorder (DRD) that occurs in children with normal intelligence despite intelligence, motivation, and educational opportunities and transpires when the brain does not recognize and process certain symbols properly.

Dyslexia is caused due to numerous reasons like the brain’s disability to translate images received from the eyes or ears into understandable language.

Phonological deficit, characterized by a difficulty in //processing language sounds is however considered as the main reason causing Dyslexia. It is associated with changes in rhythmic patterns of neural activity in the left auditory cortex.//

‘Dyslexia is a common disorder that leads to difficulties in reading and writing and affects around 10% of the population.’

Neuroscientists from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have demonstrated, in a study published in Plos Biology, a causal relationship between brain oscillations at a specific frequency (30 Hz) and the ability to process phonemes that is essential for reading.

Non-invasive electrical stimulation technique that is capable of synchronizing neural activity at the stimulation frequency reduces phonological deficits and improves reading accuracy in adults with dyslexia.

Silvia Marchesotti and Anne-Lise Giraud, researcher and professor respectively in the Department of Basic Neurosciences of the Faculty of Medicine at UNIGE, together with their colleagues, investigated the phonological deficit. "We know that during brain development, when children start to read, some experience tremendous difficulties matching speech sounds with letters," explains Silvia Marchesotti.

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Neural activity synchronization in the left auditory cortex experiences abnormalities at the frequency of 30Hz due to phonological deficit. The Geneva study shows the existence of a casual relationship between brain oscillations and the ability to process speech phonemes.

Neuroscientists applied the transcranial alternating current stimulation technique for twenty minutes over the left auditory cortex in 15 dyslexic adults and improvement in phonological processing and reading accuracy in them was observed. This benefits the people with poor reading skills and has slight disruptive effect in pleasant readers.

Geneva develops targeted non-invasive therapeutic interventions to improve phonological processing in people with dyslexia. "The next steps for us are to investigate whether normalising oscillatory function in very young children could have a long-lasting effect on the organisation of the reading system," says Silvia Marchesotti.

Studies on non-invasive stimulation treatments will continue within the new National Center of Competence in Research (NCCR). The method will be different, however: instead of using electrical stimulation, neuroscientists will try to obtain equivalent results with non-invasive technique that involves teaching self-regulation of brain signals to patients.

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Dyslexia is a reading disability that occurs when the brain does not properly recognize and process certain symbols.

"The goal remains the same, but the use of an even less invasive method will allow conducting trials with children," says Anne-Lise Giraud, the project leader.

Source-Medindia