title: Neural changes associated to procedural learning and automatization process in Developmental Coordination Disorder and/or Developmental Dyslexia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Recent theories hypothesize that procedural learning may support the frequent overlap between neurodevelopmental disorders. The neural circuitry supporting procedural learning includes, among others, cortico-cerebellar and cortico-striatal loops. Alteration of these loops may account for the frequent comorbidity between Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and Developmental Dyslexia (DD). The aim of our study was to investigate cerebral changes due to the learning and automatization of a sequence learning task in children with DD, or DCD, or both disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  fMRI on 48 children (aged 8-12) with DD, DCD or DD + DCD was used to explore their brain activity during procedural tasks, performed either after two weeks of training or in the early stage of learning.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Firstly, our results indicate that all children were able to perform the task with the same level of automaticity, but recruit different brain processes to achieve the same performance. Secondly, our fMRI results do not appear to confirm Nicolson and Fawcett's model. The neural correlates recruited for procedural learning by the DD and the comorbid groups are very close, while the DCD group presents distinct characteristics. This provide a promising direction on the neural mechanisms associated with procedural learning in neurodevelopmental disorders and for understanding comorbidity.
authors.affiliation: Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, Inserm, UPS, France. Electronic address: maelle.biotteau@inserm.fr.
authors.forename: Maëlle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Biotteau
authors.affiliation: Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, Inserm, UPS, France. Electronic address: patrice.peran@inserm.fr.
authors.forename: Patrice
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Péran
authors.affiliation: CerCo, UMR 5549 CNRS UPS, Toulouse, France. Electronic address: vayssiere@cerco.ups-tlse.fr.
authors.forename: Nathalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vayssière
authors.affiliation: Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, Inserm, UPS, France. Electronic address: jessica.tallet@univ-tlse3.fr.
authors.forename: Jessica
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tallet
authors.affiliation: Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, Inserm, UPS, France. Electronic address: jean-michel.albaret@univ-tlse3.fr.
authors.forename: Jean-Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Albaret
authors.affiliation: Toulouse NeuroImaging Center, Université de Toulouse, Inserm, UPS, France; Hôpital des Enfants, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Toulouse, CHU Purpan, Place du Dr Baylac, F-31059 Toulouse Cedex 9, France. Electronic address: chaix.y@chu-toulouse.fr.
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chaix
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology; D002648:Child; D015897:Comorbidity; D004410:Dyslexia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D019957:Motor Skills Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Comorbidity; Learning; Neurodevelopmental disorders; fMRI