Computational modeling of interventions for developmental disorders

Rachael Davis – ORCID: 0000-0002-3887-6003 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3887-6003We evaluate the potential of connectionist models of developmental disorders to offer insights into the efficacy of interventions. Based on a range of computational simulation results, we assess factors that influence the effectiveness of interventions for reading, language, and other cognitive developmental disorders. The analysis provides a level of mechanistic detail that is generally lacking in behavioral approaches to intervention. We review an extended program of modeling work in four sections. In the first, we consider long-term outcomes and the possibility of compensated outcomes and resolution of early delays. In the second section, we address methods to remediate atypical development in a single network. In the third section, we address interventions to encourage compensation via alternative pathways. In the final section, we consider the key issue of individual differences in response to intervention. Together with advances in understanding the neural basis of developmental disorders and neural responses to training, formal computational approaches can spur theoretical progress to narrow the gap between the theory and practice of intervention.This research was supported by MRC Career Establishment Grant G0300188, ESRC Grant RES-062–23-2721, a Leverhulme Study Abroad Fellowship held at the University of Chicago, a joint grant from the Wellcome Trust and the Education Endowment Foundation to the University of London Centre for Educational Neuroscience, a Wellcome Trust Institutional Strategic Support Fund Career Development award, National Natural Science Foundation of China (61402309), and Bloomsbury Colleges Studentship awarded to Rachael Davis.https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000151126pubpub