Previous neuroimaging studies have found atypical cerebellar activation in individuals with dyslexia in either motor-related tasks or language tasks. However, studies investigating atypical cerebellar activation in individuals with dyslexia have mostly used tasks tapping phonological processing. A question that is yet unanswered is whether the cerebellum in individuals with dyslexia functions properly during orthographic processing of words, as growing evidence shows that the cerebellum is also involved in visual and spatial processing. Here, we investigated cerebellar activation and cerebro-cerebellar functional connectivity during word processing in dyslexic readers and typically developing readers using tasks that tap orthographic and phonological codes. In children with dyslexia, we observed an abnormally higher engagement of the bilateral cerebellum for the orthographic task, which was negatively correlated with literacy measures. The greater the reading impairment was for young dyslexic readers, the stronger the cerebellar activation was. This suggests a compensatory role of the cerebellum in reading for children with dyslexia. In addition, a tendency for higher cerebellar activation in dyslexic readers was found in the phonological task. Moreover, the functional connectivity was stronger for dyslexic readers relative to typically developing readers between the lobule VI of the right cerebellum and the left fusiform gyrus during the orthographic task and between the lobule VI of the left cerebellum and the left supramarginal gyrus during the phonological task. This pattern of results suggests that the cerebellum compensates for reading impairment through the connections with specific brain regions responsible for the ongoing reading task. These findings enhance our understanding of the cerebellum's involvement in reading and reading impairment.

Aims and objectives To determine the effect of a transtheoretical model (TTM)‐based intervention on patients with an ostomy and provide patient‐centred, accessible assistance and dynamic education to improve patient self‐management. Background Proper self‐management may promote the rehabilitation of patients with an ostomy. TTM‐based interventions have resulted in positive health behavioural changes. Design Randomised controlled trial performed according to the CONSORT guidelines. Subject and setting The sample comprised 55 men and 37 women (24–77 years old, mean ± SD = 52.8 ± 11.13 years). The study settings included three tertiary hospitals in Changsha, Hunan, China. Methods The 92 patients, recruited from August 2012 to March 2013, were randomised into a control group and an intervention group. Randomisation was done by using a block randomisation list with a block size of 4. Self‐management behaviours were assessed at the baseline, 2 days before discharge and after 1, 3 and 6 months of follow‐up. The chi‐squared test, independent sample t test and repeated measures analysis of variance were used to analyse the data. Results Patients in the intervention group were more likely to be at the action and maintenance stages compared with those in the control group. We also observed significant improvements in the self‐management ability in the process of change, the decisional balance and self‐efficacy in the intervention group compared with those in the control group after four intervention sessions and up to 6 months of follow‐up. No serious intervention‐related adverse events were observed. Conclusions The TTM‐based intervention had positive effects on self‐management behaviours of patients with an ostomy. Relevance to clinical practice The TTM‐based intervention had positive effects on self‐management behaviours of patients with an ostomy and may provide a reference for health providers to develop behaviour promotion programmes to improve the self‐management of patients with an ostomy.

Ambiguous words are hard to learn, yet little is known about what causes this difficulty. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between the representations of new and prior meanings of ambiguous words in second language (L2) learning, and to explore the function of inhibitory control on L2 ambiguous word learning at the initial stage of learning. During a 4-day learning phase, Chinese–English bilinguals learned 30 novel English words for 30 min per day using bilingual flashcards. Half of the words to be learned were unambiguous (had one meaning) and half were ambiguous (had two semantically unrelated meanings learned in sequence). Inhibitory control was introduced as a subject variable measured by a Stroop task. The semantic representations established for the studied items were probed using a cross-language semantic relatedness judgment task, in which the learned English words served as the prime, and the targets were either semantically related or unrelated to the prime. Results showed that response latencies for the second meaning of ambiguous words were slower than for the first meaning and for unambiguous words, and that performance on only the second meaning of ambiguous words was predicted by inhibitory control ability. These results suggest that, at the initial stage of L2 ambiguous word learning, the representation of the second meaning is weak, probably interfered with by the representation of the prior learned meaning. Moreover, inhibitory control may modulate learning of the new meanings, such that individuals with better inhibitory control may more effectively suppress interference from the first meaning, and thus learn the new meaning more quickly.

Aims: The present study adopted the electroencephalogram (EEG) technique to investigate whether inhibition advantage could modulate different language switches, regardless of the time spent on second language learning. Design: The inhibitory control (IC) ability of 80 low-proficient Chinese (L1)-English (L2) bilinguals was assessed by the Simon task. Half of these bilinguals were then subdivided into 20 high- and 20 low-IC participants to perform switching between L1 and L2 (L1–L2 switching), and the other half were subdivided into 20 high- and 20 low-IC participants to conduct switching between L1 and Lnew (L1–Lnew switching). All participants were required to name pictures (picture naming task) in their L1 and L2/Lnew in language switching task. Data and analysis: Both response latencies and EEG data were obtained, and then evoked and induced oscillations were calculated using time–frequency analysis. Findings: The results of language switching showed similar naming latencies for L1 and L2/Lnew switch trials in the high-IC group, whereas the low-IC group showed larger naming latencies for L1 switch trials than L2/Lnew switch trials. In contrast, the high-IC group exhibited larger theta evoked and induced power for L2/Lnew switch trials than L1 switch trials at the lexical selection level, whereas the low-IC group did not. These findings indicate that inhibition advantage helps the high-IC group to suppress effectively the non-target word via recruiting bottom-up (evoked oscillation) and top-down (induced oscillation) processes. Innovation: The present study was a first attempt to provide evidence that theta oscillation indicates cross-language interference at the lexical selection level. Significance: Inhibition plays a modulatory role in language switching, which is independent of the time spent on second language learning, and such role involves bottom-up (i.e., evoked oscillation) and top-down (i.e., induced oscillation) processes which were mainly evident at the lexical selection level.

Second language (L2) learners need to continually learn new L2 words as well as additional meanings of previously learned L2 words. The present study investigated the influence of semantic similarity on the growth curve of learning of artificially paired new meanings of previously known L2 words in Chinese–English bilinguals. The results of a translation recognition task showed that related meanings are learned faster and more accurately than unrelated meanings. The advantage of learning related new meaning persisted and increased for a week after learning the new meanings. These results suggest that semantic similarities impact the learning of new meanings for known L2 words, and that the shared features between previously known and new meanings of a word facilitate the process of incorporating the related new meaning into the lexical semantic network. Our results are discussed under the framework of the connectionist model.