Changes in EEG complexity with neurofeedback and multi-sensory learning in children with dyslexia: A multiscale entropy analysis

Abstract

Multiscale entropy analysis (MSE) is a novel entropy-based approach for measuring dynamical complexity in physiological systems over a range of temporal scales. MSE has been successfully applied in the literature when measuring autism traits, Alzheimer’s, and schizophrenia. However, until now, there has been no research on MSE applied to children with dyslexia. In this study, we have applied MSE analysis to the EEG data of an experimental group consisting of children with dyslexia as well as a control group consisting of typically developing children and compared the results. The experimental group comprised 16 participants with dyslexia who visited Ankara University Medical Faculty Child Neurology Department, and the control group comprised 20 age-matched typically developing children with no reading or writing problems. MSE was calculated for one continuous 60-s epoch for each experimental and control group’s EEG session data. The experimental group showed significantly lower complexity at the lowest temporal scale and the medium temporal scales than the typically developing group. Moreover, the experimental group received 60 neurofeedback and multi-sensory learning sessions, each lasting 30 min, with Auto Train Brain. Post-treatment, the experimental group’s lower complexity increased to the typically developing group’s levels at lower and medium temporal scales in all channels.

Keywords:

• Auto Train Brain
• dyslexia
• MSE
• neurofeedback

Ethical approval

All the participants gave their informed consent after the experimental procedure was explained to them by guidelines set by the research ethics committee of Sabancı University, and the protocol of the study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Yeditepe University and the clinical trial was registered to Turkey Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency (Nbr: 71146310-511.06,2.11.2018).

Acknowledgments

This is the first research conducted in Turkey in which children with dyslexia between 7 and 10-years-old have been treated with the mobile phone software. Participants were recruited from TV advertisements and were referred by child neurologists. We are especially grateful to the families who participated in this study; without their dedication and support, we may not have completed it.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financially supported by the Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştirma Kurumu (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey [TUBITAK]) [2170172] and by the Turkish Republic and the European Union.