Attenuated age-related target and action stabilization in dyscalculia.

Abstract

Flexible action requires recent context to shape the meaning of a current target. We examined whether this process shows an atypical age-related pattern in children with developmental dyscalculia (DD). Target-locked electroencephalography was available from 143 children aged 6 to 11 years, of whom 111 met the trial criterion for the primary four-condition analysis. Time-resolved multivariate analyses separated cue, target, and context-dependent action information. Cue information was present in both DD and typically developing (TD) children and generalized across target categories from 114 to 644 ms (cluster P < 0.001). Target and action representations showed diagnosis-by-age interactions from 224 to 414 ms (cluster P = 0.002) and from 264 to 404 ms (cluster P = 0.004), respectively. Action-representation strength increased with age in TD children, and the directional stability of both target and action representations also increased with age in TD but not DD. The association between action-representation strength and signal-detection sensitivity was stronger in DD than in TD children (diagnosis × action: β = 0.647, SE = 0.152, P < 0.001). These findings suggest attenuated age-related strengthening and stabilization of target- and action-related neural representations in this DD cohort rather than a broad loss of cue information.