SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM

Cognitive Neuroscience in Education May 16th 2014 Aula Medica, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm

Med stöd från Kronprinsessan Victorias Stiftelse för vetenskaplig forskning och utbildning

Welcome!

There is a growing interest in the possibility of bridging the gap between cognitive neuroscience and education. Promising research studies are being published, but there is also an awareness that this link might be difficult to achieve in the short run. In this symposium we will hear about recent research findings and discuss possible ways ahead. The funding for the symposium has been kindly provided by a research fund from the Princess Victoria: “Kronprinsessan Victorias Stiftelse för Vetenskaplig Forskning och Utbildning”. Torkel Klingberg ORGANIZER

Program Symposium “Cognitive neuroscience in Education”  May 16th 2014 Aula Medica, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm.

08.00 – 08.45

Registration and coffee.

09.00 – 09.15

Welcome! Torkel Klingberg introduce todays schedule.

09.15 – 10.00

Dr. Paul Howard-Jones, University of Bristol; Neuroscience in Education: What is the distance to application and how should we travel it?

10.00 – 10.45

Dr. Yulia Kovas, University of St Petersburg; Genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in mathematical motivation, ability, and achievement

10.40 – 11.00

COFFEE BREAK

11.00 – 11.20

Linnéa Karlsson Ph.D, Umeå University; Learning mathematics without a suggested solution method: durable effects on performance and brain activity.

11.20 – 11.40

Fahime Darki Ph.D. Student, Karolinska Institutet; Genetic and imaging assessment of impaired reading.

11.40 – 12.00

Miriam Mosing Ph.D, Karolinska Institutet; Effects of music practice on auditory discrimination skills and IQ: Causality or genetic pleiotropy?

12.00 – 13.00

LUNCH

13.00 – 13.45

Professor Lars Nyberg; Umeå University Lerning by testing: the neural correlates and potential usefulness of the testing effect.                

13.45 – 14.30

Professor Torkel Klingberg, Karolinska Institutet; Working memory and mathematics – from neuroimaging to interventions.

14.30 – 15.15

Dr. Roi Cohen Kadosh, University of Oxford; Can Neuroscience Enhance Academic Achievements?

15.15 – 15.45

Closing comments.

Speakers Dr Paul Howard-Jones Neuroscience in Education: What is the distance to application and how should we travel it? Bio: Dr Paul Howard-Jones is a Reader of Neuroscience and Education at the Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol. His research interests lie at the interface of cognitive neuroscience with educational theory, practice and policy, and he publishes within and across these fields. He is author of “Introducing Neuroeducational Research” and leads the MSc in Neuroscience and Education at Bristol. He was a member of the UK’s Royal Society working group on Neuroscience and Education that published its report in 2011. Commissioned reports include the potential effects of the Internet on the brain (presented at the Nominet Lecture at the UK’s Royal Society for Arts) and a review of “Educational Interventions and Approaches Informed by Neuroscience” for the Educational Endowment Foundation. His current research focuses on using neuroimaging to further understanding of the design and implementation of learning games in the classroom. He has previously worked as a schoolteacher, trainer of teachers and as an inspector of schools. Abstract: A recent review of educational interventions and approaches informed by neuroscience will be briefly summarised. This will indicate the strength of evidence for the potential effectiveness of current approaches and how close they are to application. The different routes by which neuroscience can enter educational practice will then be critically analysed, and work at the University of Bristol (on learning games) will be discussed as one example of the ways in which bridges across neuroscience and education can be built.

Dr. Yulia Kovas Genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in mathematical motivation, ability, and achievement. Bio: Dr Kovas has a BA and MA in Literature, Linguistics, and Pedagogy and teaching qualifications from the State Pedagogical University of St Petersburg.  In Russia she taught children of all ages for 6 years, when she first started thinking about the origins of individual variation in learning abilities.  She received a B.Sc. in Psychology from Birkbeck College in 2003, and M.Sc. in Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry from King’s College in 2004.  She received her Ph.D. in 2007 from the SGDP Centre, Kings College, University of London (focusing on individual differences in mathematics). In addition to being a Reader and Director of InLab (www.inlab.co.uk) at Goldsmiths College, she is an Honorary Researcher at the Institute of Psychiatry where she leads the mathematics research on the Twins ‘early development study exploring gene-environment interplay in shaping individual variation in mathematics interest, ability, and achievement.  She has published extensively on gene-environment interplay involved in variation in mathematics. Dr Kovas collaborates on research projects in China, Russia, Kirgizia, Canada, and U.S. to study socio-cultural factors involved in cross-cultural differences in numerical cognition and mathematical learning.  Dr Kovas is also a co-director of the Russian-British Laboratory for Behavioral Genetics at the Psychological Institute of the Russian Academy of Education

Abstract: Recent behavioural genetic research has provided much new information about etiology of individual differences in mathematical motivation, ability, and achievement. Heritability of numeracy is relatively stable across development and is similar to that of literacy. Interestingly, in the early school years heritability of numeracy and literacy is twice higher than heritability of general cognitive ability (g). Multivariate genetic research suggests that the same genes are largely involved in both normal variation and low mathematical performance. Research also shows that mostly the same genes contribute to the individual differences in diverse aspects of mathematics and that most of the genes that contribute to individual differences in mathematics are the same genes that affect reading and g. The latest method for estimating heritability directly from DNA of unrelated individuals (GCTA analysis) confirms that many genes are involved in mathematical ability and that these genes largely work in the ‘generalist way’. However, some aetiological specificity of mathematical variation has also been found. I will present the results of our latest investigations into the aetiology of the relationships between individual differences in mathematics and such traits as ‘number sense’, mathematical self-efficacy, enjoyment of mathematics, and mathematical anxiety. Finally, I will present new results of molecular genetic and cross-cultural genetically sensitive investigations that are designed to identify the processes by which environments moderate genetic effects on mathematical motivation and learning.

Linnea Karlsson Ph.D Learning mathematics without a suggested solution method: durable effects on performance and brain activity. Bio: Linnea is currently a researcher at Umeå Center for Functional Brain Imaging (UFBI). She received her PhD in Psychology from Umeå University in 2007, within the area of judgment and decision-making. After that she spent three years as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition, in Berlin. In 2010, she accepted a Swedish postdoc-position at UFBI funded by Umeå School of Education on “educational neuroscience”. Since then her research interests are focused on what neurocognitive mechanisms that characterize effective learning methods as well as on what neurocognitive mechanisms that govern accurate judgment and decision making. Abstract: A dominant mathematics teaching method is to present a solution method (e.g. a formula) and let pupils repeatedly practice using it (i.e. engage in algorithmic reasoning, AR). An alternative method is to let pupils create a solution method themselves (i.e. creative mathematically founded reasoning, CMR). The current study compared these two types of practice in terms of lasting effects on behavioral performance and associated brain activity during a test one week after practice. The behavioral results revealed a performance advantage for participants trained in the CMR environment. Moreover, participants trained in the CMR environment showed relatively lower fMRI activity in the left angular gyrus, possibly reflecting less extensive demands on verbal memory strategies. These results indicate that different practice tasks induce lasting behavioral effects and modulate brain regions engaged during subsequent mathematics performance.

Fahimeh Darki Ph.D student Genetic and imaging assessment of impaired reading. Abstract: Three genes, DYX1C1, DCDC2 and KIAA0319 have been previously associated with dyslexia, neuronal migration and ciliary function. Here, we investigated the effect of these genes on the variability of white matter structure during childhood development using a longitudinal dataset of 76 randomly selected children and young adults who were scanned up to 3 times, each 2 years apart. Three polymorphisms within these genes, rs3743204 (DYX1C1), rs793842 (DCDC2) and rs6935076 (KIAA0319) were associated to normal variability of left temporo-parietal white matter volume connecting the middle temporal cortex to the angular and supramarginal gyri. We also assessed whether these polymorphisms are related to the variability of cortical thickness in the parietal and temporal associated regions. Rs793842 in DCDC2 was significantly associated with the thickness of left angular and supramarginal gyri. The cortex was significantly thicker for T-allele carriers, who also had lower white matter volume and lower reading comprehension scores. There was a negative correlation between white matter volume and cortical thickness, but only white matter volume predicted reading comprehension two years after scanning. These results show how normal variability in reading comprehension is related to gene, white matter volume and cortical thickness in the inferior parietal lobe. Possibly, the variability of gray and white matter structures could both be related to the role of DCDC2 in ciliary function, which affects both neuronal migration and axonal outgrowth Bio: Fahimeh is a Ph.D. student at Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience Lab (Klingberg Lab), Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. She received her MS. c. in Medical Physics from Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2007, in the field of diffusion tensor imaging with the focus on white matter tractography algorithms. She is currently working on a longitudinal data, examining the associations between learning, memory and language related genes and white matter structure in children and young adults using multimodal neuroimaging techniques, structural, functional and diffusion tensor MRI. Her main research interest is to link between genes, brain structures and behavior in order to find the neural mechanism underlying neurodevelopmental disorders such as dyslexia.

Miriam Mosing Ph.D. Effects of music practice on auditory discrimination skills and IQ: Causality or genetic pleiotropy?” Abstract; For various forms of expertise, including musical proficiency, longterm deliberate practice is regarded one of the best predictors of expert performance. Interestingly, several studies report associations between performance on sensory discrimination tasks that tap into musical expertise and general cognitive ability. A prevailing idea is that music practice improves music skills and that it may entail some sort of transfer effect, such as an increase in cognitive ability. However, an alternative explanation for the reported associations could be that some underlying factor influences cognitive ability, music skills and practice behaviour. Such an underlying factor could be genetic variation among individuals. Past studies have focused on phenotypic associations using designs, which do not allow for conclusions regarding causality or the role of genetic factors for expertise. So the relative importance of practice for various aspects of musical expertise and its relationship to intelligence remains controversial. The present study is the first to use a genetically informative sample (10,500 Swedish twins) to explore the associations between music practice (hours throughout lifetime), IQ, and music ability (rhythm, melody and pitch discrimination), which also

allows for testing of causal relationships. Phenotypic relationships between the variables were moderate and highly significant with correlations ranging between 0.22-0.39, while music practice and IQ showed a significant but slightly lower correlation at 0.15. Heritability estimates ranged between 40-58%. The relationships between variables could entirely be explained by shared genetic influences and correlations of intrapair differences in the traits among monozygotic twins were non-significant, indicating that in genetically identical twin pairs the twin who practiced more does not have better music skills or a higher cognitive ability. These findings strongly support a non-causal explanation, such as genetic pleiotropy. Bio: Dr Miriam Mosing completed her graduate and undergraduate studies in Neuroscience at Maastricht University in the Netherlands. She then commenced a PhD in Behavior Genetics at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and University of Queensland in Australia exploring genetic and environmental influences on well-being and quality of life throughout life and in the aged. Since finalizing her PhD, she has been involved in several large scale consortia investigating the genetics of quality of life related traits and currently is working on a project exploring the effects of music on the brain. Her research interests include, well-being, mental and physical health, aging, and cognitive ability.

Professor Lars Nyberg; Learning by testing: The neural correlates and potential usefulness of the testing effect. Bio: Lars is a professor of neuroscience at Umeå University (Departments of Radiation Sciences & Integrative Medical Biology). He serves as the Director of Umeå Center for Functional Brain Imaging (UFBI). His research focus is to use brain-imaging techniques to examine memory functions in healthy and diseased individuals. One of the research projects that he is working on is the Betula study. The project’s objective is to study how memory functions change during adult life to determine risk factors for dementia and early signs of dementia. Currently (2013-14) they are collecting longitudinal MRI and fMRI data on a large Betula sample. Recently, the COBRA project was initiated. In that study, cognitive testing is combined with MRI and PET (dopamine D2) imaging, with the purpose of examining how dopaminergic neurotransmission relate to cognition as well as to brain structure and function. Yet another project is “Learning and Memory” in which a neuroscientific perspective is integrated with education and cognitive psychology. Abstract; In recent years, there has been accumulating evidence that memory retrieval is an active process that can alter the content and accessibility of stored memories. One example, of potential relevance for educational practice, concerns conceptualizations of retrieval as a tool for strengthening learning of new information (“the testing effect”). In this presentation I will summarize the results from several studies that converge to show that the testing effect is (i) a highly robust phenomenon in laboratory settings for different kinds of materials, (ii) possible to demonstrate in genuine educational settings, and (iii) holds for different populations and age groups. The theoretical basis for the effect remains unclear, but key cognitive accounts of why testing may boost subsequent retention will be summarized and related to findings from recent brain-imaging studies. Collectively, the available evidence suggests that testing facilitates performance via multiple neurocognitive factors, including strengthening of representations, inhibiting irrelevant information, and potentiating subsequent learning.

Professor Torkel Klingberg; Working memory and mathematics – from neuroimaging to interventions. Bio: Torkel Klingberg, MD, PhD, is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. He received his MD and PhD at Karolinska Institutet, where his dissertation was focused on working memory. He spent time as post-doc at Stanford University, with John Gabrieli at the department of Psychology and Michael Moseley at department of Radiology. Here he did one of the first studies using diffusion tensor imaging to study dyslexia. In Sweden he has formed his own group focusing on development and plasticity of cognitive functions. He led the original studies demonstrating that working memory can be improved by training, which has led to a large interest in the research community worldwide. Dr. Klingberg also leads a large Swedish project on child development, lectures regularly at international conferences, is the recipient of several prizes, including the Gustafsson prize, and serves as a member of the Nobel Assembly. He is also the author of two books: “The Overflowing Brain: Information Overload and the Limits of Working Memory” and most recently “The learning brain - memory and brain development in children”, (Oxford University Press). Abstract; A central ability for early mathematical understanding is number sense: the ability to understand, represent and compare numbers. One aspect of number sense is ability to represent numbers using a spatial, linear representation according to a number line. This spatial representation, or mental number line, is also key for performing addition and subtractions. Mathematical performance is not only dependent on mathematical knowledge and skills, but also general cognitive abilities. One central function is visuo-spatial working memory (WM), which is the ability to keep in mind and manipulate spatial information for a short period of time. WM is impaired in subjects with dyscalculia, but is also correlated with mathematical performance in the general population. Performance on WM tests is also predictive of future mathematical performance. Both the number line representation and visuo-spatial working memory depend on the parietal cortex. In a study we measured brain activity in the parietal cortex of 46 children during performance of a working memory task. This activity predicted mathematical performance 2 years later, independently of behavioural measures. A logistic model including both behavioural and imaging data showed improved sensitivity by correctly classifying more than twice as many children as poor arithmetical performers after 2 years than a model with behavioural measures only. Training on working memory tasks improves working memory capacity and has been associated with increased parietal activity. In a study involving 176 children we evaluated the effect of working memory training on arithmetic. Using repeated measures, we found a linear transfer to benefits in performing arithmetic (p < 0.0001). These results suggest ways in which neuroimaging can be used in predicting children at risk of future impaired academic performance, as well as to guide development of interventions.

Dr. Roi Cohen Kadosh; Can Neuroscience Enhance Academic Achievements? Bio: Roi received his PhD in Neuropsychology (summa cum laude, direct track) on the mental operations and neuropsychological mechanisms of numerical and magnitude processing under the supervision of Avishai Henik from the Ben-Gurion University in 2006. During this time he also had the opportunity to gain experience with neuroimaging techniques, such as fMRI and ERP under the supervision of David Linden at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research (Frankfurt, Germany), where he practiced for one year as clinical neuropsychologist at the Traumatic Brain Injuries Unit, Beit Lowenstein Rehabilitation Center in Israel. During his PhD period he also completed the European Diploma in Cognitive and Brain Sciences (EDCBS, 2003-4). He received funding from several sources including the International Brain Research Organization, and the European Union (Marie Curie Intra European Fellowship) to investigate the neural substrate of numerical representations using brain stimulation and neuroimaging during my postdoctoral training with Vincent Walsh at University College London. He joined EP as a Welcome RCD Fellow in 2009 where he also established the Cohen Kadosh Lab.  Abstract; Cognitive abilities and educational achievements have a great impact for an individual’s life and future prospects. However, current cognitive intervention approaches have yielded limited improvements, suggesting that a two-pronged approach, which targets neural deficits together with cognitive difficulties, may prove more successful. A more effective dual approach however depends not only on us having a thorough grasp of the biological bases of learning, but particularly on understanding causal relationships between behavioural and brain factors. Moreover, most of the studies that examined learning and cognition at the biological level focused on functional brain activation or anatomical correlates, which reflect neuroplastic changes that might be hard to alter. I will focus in this talk on two innovative directions that we have applied in children and adults: 1) Examining the association between neurochemicals, which are likely to precede anatomical and functional changes, and educational achievement, and more specifically: mathematics. 2) Using transcranial electrical stimulation that has been shown to alter neurochemicals, together with cognitive training including maths video games, to enhance cognition and educational outcomes. Cumulatively, this line of studies provides new understanding of the child and adult brain with possible means to improve cognition and educational achievements, thus having important implications for the future of education, learning, and neuroplasticity.

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