title: [Dysfunction of central coherence in schoolchildren with procedural learning disorder].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Children with coordination disorder -non verbal learning disorder, procedural learning disorder (PLD)- have difficulties in understanding complex simultaneous visual information.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Validation of two different visual tasks to measure central coherence function of children with PLD.
  
  
  METHODS
  A chimeric image and a complex visual story are showed to 200 schoolchildren: 20 of them have PLD, 60 have PLD plus attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (PLD + ADHD), 60 have non comorbid ADHD, and 60 subjects are typical control children. A chi square test and a discriminant analysis are used to study the performances of the different groups in verbal description of both images.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Performance is lower in children with PLD and PLD + ADHD than in those with non-comorbid ADHD or controls. Moreover 93% and 92% of children with poor performance in, respectively, chimeric and complex images, have PLD or PLD + ADHD. Eighty seven per cent of subjects with PLD + ADHD fail in some of the tasks and, by contrast only 15% of children with ADHD do.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Children with PLD have disability in quick understanding of simultaneous complex information and central coherence. The two tasks used in this research are useful to detect these difficulties, with high sensibility and specificity.
authors.affiliation: Unidad de Neurología Pediátrica, Departamento de Pediatría, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Navarra, España. necrespo@unav.es
authors.forename: Nerea
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Crespo-Eguílaz
authors.forename: Juan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Narbona
authors.forename: Sara
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Magallón
mesh_terms: D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D032882:Comprehension; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007859:Learning Disabilities / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011581:Psychological Tests; D060685:Sense of Coherence; D014705:Verbal Behavior