Learning Disabilities
The learning disabled diagnosis has received considerable attention in the literature. This group is mostly composed of the reading and math disability. Historically, reading disability was labeled dyslexia. The math disability situation has received very little research attention in comparison to the reading disability situation. What we know about the reading disability situation from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), magnetoencephalography (MEG), positron emission tomography (PET), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and the quantitative EEG is that the left posterior (T5-P3-O1) is intimately involved in this cognitive problem.
The figure above reflects an example of how this problem is manifested in terms of the QEEG for one subject with a reading problem. In this example, the QEEG shows elevated theta and delta levels in the entire posterior locations as well as deficient coherence beta activity from the left frontal region and coherence alpha activity from the left posterior locations.
In the head figures where there is one location with no circle, the empty location represents the origin of a "flashlight" which "sends" out its beam to the other locations. When the beam arrives at a particular location a coherence value is calculated. The colors of the circle indicated the standard deviation (SD) difference from the normative reference group. The white color indicates that the subject was within the range between +.50 and -.50 standard deviations. The light blue indicates the subject was between -.50 and -1.50 SD. The dark blue indicates the subject's value was below -1.50 SD. Light orange indicates the subject was between +.50 SD and +1.50 SD while the dark orange indicates a value above +1.50 SD. The number in the circle is the SD value.