Scientists at the University of Washington, Seattle, say that for less than $100, they have designed a computer-interfaced drawing pad that can help scientists see inside the brains of children with learning disabilities as they read and write. To create the system, the researchers hollowed out a ballpoint pen and inserted two optical fibers connected to a light-tight box in an adjacent control room where the pen’s movement is recorded. They also created a simple wooden square pad to hold a piece of paper printed with continuously varying color gradients. The custom pen and pad allow researchers to record handwriting during functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to assess behavior and brain function at the same time.
By using supplies already found in most labs (such as a computer), the rest of the supplies, a pen, fiber optics, wooden pad, and printed paper, cost less than $100.The device connects to a computer with software that records every aspect of the handwriting, from stroke order to speed, hesitations and liftoffs. Understanding how these physical patterns correlate with a child’s brain patterns can help scientists understand the neural connections involved.
Researchers studied 11- and 14-year-olds with either dyslexia or dysgraphia, a handwriting and letter-processing disorder, as well as children without learning disabilities. Subjects looked at printed directions on a screen while their heads were inside the fMRI scanner. The pen and pad were on a foam pad on their laps.
Subjects were given four-minute blocks of reading and writing tasks. Then they were asked to simply think about writing an essay, because thinking about writing caused many of the same brain responses as actual writing would, they said.
Although the researchers are just beginning to analyze the data they’ve collected, they say that there already some surprising results, such as certain centers and neural pathways that were unexpectedly activated. Besides learning disorders, the inexpensive pen and pad also could help researchers study diseases in adults, especially conditions that cause motor control problems, such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s disease.
