Math ability requires crosstalk in the brain

August 29, 2012 in Neuroscience

Math ability requires crosstalk in the brain

Enlarge

Examples of the simple numerical and arithmetic tasks used in the study. Participants were asked to judge whether the numerical operation was correct or not. Credit: Center for Vital Longevity, University of Texas at Dallas

A new study by researchers at UT Dallas' Center for Vital Longevity, Duke University, and the University of Michigan has found that the strength of communication between the left and right hemispheres of the brain predicts performance on basic arithmetic problems. The findings shed light on the neural basis of human math abilities and suggest a possible route to aiding those who suffer from dyscalculia— an inability to understand and manipulate numbers.

It has been known for some time that the parietal cortex, the top/middle region of the brain, plays a central role in so-called numerical cognition—our ability to process numerical information. Previous brain imaging studies have shown that the right parietal region is primarily involved in basic quantity processing (like gauging relative amounts of fruit in baskets), while the left parietal region is involved in more precise numerical operations like addition and subtraction. What has not been known is whether the two hemispheres can work together to improve . The new study demonstrates that they can. The findings were recently published online in .

In the study, conducted in Dallas and led by Dr. Joonkoo Park, now a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University, researchers used , or fMRI, to measure the of 27 healthy young adults while they performed simple numerical and arithmetic tasks. In one task, participants were asked to judge whether two groups of shapes contained the same or different numbers of items. In two other tasks, participants were asked to solve simple addition and subtraction problems.

Consistent with previous studies, the researchers found that the basic number-matching task activated the right parietal cortex, while the addition and subtraction tasks produced additional activity in the left . But they also found something new: During the arithmetic tasks, communication between the left and right hemispheres increased significantly compared with the number-matching task. Moreover, people who exhibited the strongest connection between hemispheres were the fastest at solving the subtraction problems.

"Our results suggest that subtraction performance is optimal when there is high coherence in the neural activity in these two brain regions. Two brain areas working together rather than either region alone appears to be key" said co-author Dr. Denise C. Park, co-director of the UT Dallas Center for Vital Longevity and Distinguished University Chair in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Park (no relation to the lead author) helped direct the study along with Dr. Thad Polk, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan.

Lead author Dr. Joonkoo Park points out that the findings suggest that disrupted or inefficient neural communication between the hemispheres may contribute to the impaired seen in dyscalculia, the numerical equivalent of dyslexia. "If such a causal link exists," he said, "one very interesting avenue of research would be to develop training tasks to enhance parietal connectivity and to test whether they improve numerical competence."

Such a training program might help develop math ability in children and could also help older adults whose arithmetic skills begin to falter as a normal part of age-related cognitive decline.

Journal reference: Cerebral Cortex search and more info website

Provided by University of Texas at Dallas search and more info website

5 /5 (9 votes)  

Filter


Move the slider to adjust rank threshold, so that you can hide some of the comments.


Display comments: newest first

MrVibrating
Aug 29, 2012

Rank: 5 / 5 (1)
Fascinating, and makes one wonder if such inter-lateral processing isn't similarly effective with regard to other faculties...
matica
Aug 29, 2012

Rank: 2.3 / 5 (3)
Mathematics is not about the ability to do arithmetic calculations. I find mentioning math ability in the title misleading.
Tausch
Aug 30, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
As far as the language of math is concerned there exists answers.
(regardless if 'solvable' or 'unsolvable')

Whether answers lay within or outside the scope of a language depends on your ability to associate any and/or all thoughts independent of source or 'location'.

Return to the drawing board. Nice try though.
Telekinetic
Aug 30, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
"Such a training program might help develop math ability in children and could also help older adults whose arithmetic skills begin to falter as a normal part of age-related cognitive decline."

Giving a child the opportunity to learn to play a musical instrument or how to play chess would activate the same and other neural networks while increasing their intelligence and appreciation for culture.

Tausch
Aug 30, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
If you exist there is no way to avoid learning.
'Teaching' is an invention which never existed to be discovered.
Sinister1811
Aug 30, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
Damned dyscalculia. I'm almost certain that I have that condition, as I've been terrible at maths for most of my life. Hopefully, this kind of research will lead to greater understandings of maths ability, and hopefully find ways of improving upon that ability.
Tausch
Aug 30, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
Your comment is an advanced mathematical expression.

You feel the need to express your mathematical competence in 'conventional' math terms and language.

You were taught this. And told you lack this 'ability'.
Laars__
Sep 02, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
Crosstalk is not what is going on in the brain when one lobe queries another. This is called, simply, talk. Crosstalk would be when one channel of information is modulated by the signal, data voltages, or noise, of an adjacent channel (or, near-enough-by (one)). Of course, it isn't cross talk, either (l: However, I was hoping when I saw the title that I was going to read that for some reason noise in neural circuits made better use of integers, since numbers are ineffective, unless error is allowed. (duck)

- Laarsø
gmurphy
Sep 03, 2012

Rank: not rated yet
It's interesting to note that musicians are typically noted for having above average mathematical ability and that their corpus callosum is highly developed.
Rank 5 /5 (9 votes)
Relevant PhysicsForums posts

More news stories

Breakthrough on Huntington's disease

Researchers at Lund University have succeeded in preventing very early symptoms of Huntington's disease, depression and anxiety, by deactivating the mutated huntingtin protein in the brains of mice.

Neuroscience created 5 minutes ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers identify networks of neurons in the brain that are disrupted in psychiatric disease

Studying the networks of connections in the brains of people affected by schizophrenia, bipolar disease or depression has allowed Dr. Peter Williamson, from Western University, to gain a better understanding of the biological ...

Neuroscience created 1 hour ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Pay attention: How we focus and concentrate

Scientists at Newcastle University have shed new light on how the brain tunes in to relevant information.

Neuroscience created 1 hour ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New imaging techniques used to help patients suffering from epilepsy

New techniques in imaging of brain activity developed by Jean Gotman, from McGill University's Montreal Neurological Institute, and his colleagues lead to improved treatment of patients suffering from epilepsy. The combination ...

Neuroscience created 1 hour ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Common brain processes of anesthetic-induced unconsciousness identified

A study from the June issue of Anesthesiology found feedback from the front region of the brain is a crucial building block for consciousness and that its disruption is associated with unconsciousness when the anesthetics ketami ...

Neuroscience created 2 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0


Researchers suggest boosting body's natural flu killers

A known difficulty in fighting influenza (flu) is the ability of the flu viruses to mutate and thus evade various medications that were previously found to be effective. Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have ...

Anxious men fare worse during job interviews, study finds

Nervous about that upcoming job interview? You might want to take steps to reduce your jitters, especially if you are a man.

Frequent heartburn may predict cancers of the throat and vocal cord

Frequent heartburn was positively associated with cancers of the throat and vocal cord among nonsmokers and nondrinkers, and the use of antacids, but not prescription medications, had a protective effect, according to data ...

Second-generation TAVI device—Lotus Valve—shows good performance in REPRISE II

22 May 2013, Paris, France: The Lotus Valve, a second-generation transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) device, was successfully implanted in all of the first 60 patients in results from REPRISE II reported at EuroPCR ...

Major human drug trial underway for Alzheimer's

A potentially ground-breaking human drug trial is currently underway, which aims to discover whether blood pressure medication can slow or halt the progression of Alzheimer's Disease (AD). This is the latest ...

New discovery in fight against deadly meningococcal disease

Professor Michael Jennings, Deputy Director of the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, was part of an international team that discovered the previously unknown pathway of how the bacterium colonizes people.