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Translating dyslexia across species

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Abstract

Direct relationships between induced mutation in the DCDC2 candidate dyslexia susceptibility gene in mice and changes in behavioral measures of visual spatial learning have been reported. We were interested in determining whether performance on a visual-spatial learning and memory task could be translated across species (study 1) and whether children with reading impairment showed a similar impairment to animal models of the disorder (study 2). Study 1 included 37 participants who completed six trials of four different virtual Hebb-Williams maze configurations. A 2 × 4 × 6 mixed factorial repeated measures ANOVA indicated consistency in performance between humans and mice on these tasks, enabling us to translate across species. Study 2 included a total of 91 participants (age range = 8–13 years). Eighteen participants were identified with reading disorder by performance on the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement. Participants completed six trials of five separate virtual Hebb-Williams maze configurations. A 2 × 5 × 6 mixed factorial ANCOVA (gender as covariate) indicated that individuals with reading impairment demonstrated impaired visuo-spatial performance on this task. Overall, results from this study suggest that we are able to translate behavioral deficits observed in genetic animal models of dyslexia to humans with reading impairment. Future studies will utilize the virtual environment to further explore the underlying basis for this impairment.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Pesky Foundation Research Grant to LAG and EJ. We would like to thank Dr. Matthew Taylor for his work in the initial planning of the virtual maze and Dr. Dongnhu Truong for helpful comments during the preparation of the manuscript. We would like to thank Li Guo, Stephanie Kass, and Genevieve Curtis for assistance during data collection in study 1 and Anna Maderis, Katelyn Smith, Carrie Semmelroth, Laura Moylan, and Pragnyaa Chakravanthy for assistance in study 2. MM designed the experiments and ran the participants in study 1; NE created and maintained the virtual maze and analysis program.

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    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Psychology, Lafayette College, Easton, PA, USA

      Lisa A. Gabel

    2. Program in Neuroscience, Lafayette College, Easton, PA, USA

      Lisa A. Gabel, Monica Manglani, Jessica Cysner & Rachel Hamilton

    3. Department of Computer Science, Lafayette College, Easton, PA, USA

      Nicholas Escalona & Jeffrey Pfaffmann

    4. Department of Special Education, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA

      Evelyn Johnson

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    1. Lisa A. Gabel
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    Correspondence to Lisa A. Gabel.

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    All procedures in study 1 involving animal subjects were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at Lafayette College. All procedures involving human participants in study 1 were approved by the Institutional Review Board at Lafayette College and those in study 2 were approved by the Institutional Review Boards and Boise State University and Lafayette College.

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    Monica Manglani and Nicholas Escalona contributed equally to this work.

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    Gabel, L.A., Manglani, M., Escalona, N. et al. Translating dyslexia across species. Ann. of Dyslexia 66, 319–336 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-016-0125-3

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