ABSTRACT There is a lack of understanding of how research activity in learning disability compares with community research priorities in the United Kingdom, where an estimated 1.5 million people live with a learning disability. Using Down syndrome (DS), Fragile X syndrome (FXS) and Williams syndrome (WS) as model conditions with learning disability, we address this gap. We present a systematic review of UK research funding and journal articles on DS, FXS, and WS from 2013 to 2022 (Study 1; research portfolio), and a survey consultation with UK community representatives ( N = 452; people with DS, FXS, and WS, parent/carers, practitioners, researchers) of research priorities and their reflections on the research landscape (Study 2). We report a dominance of DS, FXS, and WS research on basic science and less emphasis on research with direct application to daily life. Community representatives expressed dissatisfaction with the current research portfolio. Top research priorities related to: treatments and interventions; health; mental health; services; and lifespan issues. This indicates that the current research portfolio is misaligned to community priorities. Future research should strive to be more closely aligned to these.
Mental rotation (MR), a core spatial ability, is linked to arithmetic performance, with meta-analytic findings suggesting shared parietal and frontal neural correlates. While intrinsic functional connectivity has been shown to predict math ability in children, its predictive value for MR remains unclear. Baseline resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) of nine-year-olds (n = 1037) from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, concurrent and prospective (baseline, and 2- and 4-year follow-up) MR ability, and prospective (3-year follow-up) arithmetic ability were analyzed using ridge regression predictive modeling. RsFC predicted prospective arithmetic performance most robustly, whereas predictions of MR were weaker and varied across time points. Despite these differences, predictive features for MR remained relatively stable over 4 years. Notably, networks predictive of MR diverge from those predictive of arithmetic, suggesting partially distinct neural substrates, offering limited support for a shared neural processing account. Overall, rsFC appears to be a less reliable biomarker for MR than for arithmetic.
There is a growing body of information around adolescent neurocognitive development and potential applications to education. In its pure research form, this information is largely inaccessible to educators and educational leaders. The aim of this article is to help translate that information into knowledge that can be applied to schools and education programs. We have built on the literature from the fields of psychology and neuroscience to develop a school review tool. This tool will allow educators to examine their programs and reflect on where their culture and practices align with the neuroscience literature. As a field test, the review tool was applied to two programs and their results shared in this article.
Physical activity (PA) has been associated with cognitive performance in children, although the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Objective: This study examined whether perceived physical fitness mediates the association between PA and cognitive outcomes, while exploring sex differences. Sex-stratified multigroup structural equation modeling was conducted using cross-sectional baseline data from the Break4Brain project (n = 722 [354 girls], aged 10-12). PA was not associated with cognitive flexibility in either sex. In girls, PA was negatively associated with selective attention (beta = -0.22, p = 0.002), whereas no significant associations with cognitive outcomes were observed in boys. PA was positively associated with perceived physical fitness in boys (beta = 0.51, p < 0.001) and girls (beta = 0.56, p < 0.001). In girls, perceived physical fitness was positively associated with selective attention (beta = 0.35, p < 0.001) and significantly mediated the relationship between PA and selective attention (beta = 0.17, 95% CI [0.08, 0.26]). These findings suggest sex-specific pathways linking PA, perceived physical fitness, and cognitive performance.
By the end of primary school, the poorest UK pupils are around a year behind their peers in terms of educational attainment. This gap doubles by the age of 16. Using longitudinal data from the demographically representative Study of Cognition, Adolescents, and Mobile Phones (SCAMP), we previously showed that working memory (WM) gaps also widen during adolescence. In the current study, SCAMP data were linked with data from the UK Department for Education's National Pupil Database (n = 2726). Analyses showed that differences in WM skill development mediated some of the widening socioeconomic gradient in educational attainment during adolescence. Interestingly, some (parental occupation and income poverty), but not all aspects of socioeconomic status (parental education), predicted individual differences in academic progress via WM. While correlational, these results provide an important starting point for understanding different ways in which socioeconomic status might impact attainment during adolescence.
