Development of common neural representations for distinct numerical problems
Development of common neural representations for distinct numerical problems
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.07.005
复制
发表时间：
2015-08-01
期刊：
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Menon, Vinod
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Chang, Ting-Ting;Rosenberg-Lee, Miriam;Menon, Vinod
大脑如何形成抽象认知问题的表征是神经科学中一个尚未解决的主要问题。在这里，我们使用算术问题解决来解决这个基本问题，这是一个对于数学推理的发展非常重要的认知领域。我们首先检查成年人是否表现出加法和减法问题的常见神经表征，这是两种处理相同数量的互补算术运算。然后我们研究了这两种问题类型的常见神经表征如何随着发展而变化。进行全脑多体素表征相似性（MRS）分析来检查儿童和成人加法和减法问题的常见编码。我们发现，成年人在两种问题类型之间表现出显着水平的 MRS，不仅在后顶叶皮层 (PPC) 的顶内沟 (IPS) 区域，而且在腹侧颞枕叶、前颞叶和背外侧前额叶皮质中。与成人相比，儿童在这些相同区域的 MRS 水平显着降低。相比之下，儿童问题类型之间没有任何大脑区域显示出明显更高的 MRS。我们的研究结果提供了新的证据，表明从童年到成年的算术问题解决技能的出现，其特点是不同数字运算之间的共同神经表征的成熟，并且涉及对于表示和操纵数字量很重要的分布式大脑区域。更广泛地说，我们的研究结果表明，表征分析提供了一种强大的方法来揭示儿童发展作为人类认知标志的熟练程度的基本机制。由爱思唯尔有限公司出版
How the brain develops representations for abstract cognitive problems is a major unaddressed question in neuroscience. Here we tackle this fundamental question using arithmetic problem solving, a cognitive domain important for the development of mathematical reasoning. We first examined whether adults demonstrate common neural representations for addition and subtraction problems, two complementary arithmetic operations that manipulate the same quantities. We then examined how the common neural representations for the two problem types change with development. Whole-brain multivoxel representational similarity (MRS) analysis was conducted to examine common coding of addition and subtraction problems in children and adults. We found that adults exhibited significant levels of MRS between the two problem types, not only in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) region of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), but also in ventral temporal-occipital, anterior temporal and dorsolateral prefrontal cortices. Relative to adults, children showed significantly reduced levels of MRS in these same regions. In contrast, no brain areas showed significantly greater MRS between problem types in children. Our findings provide novel evidence that the emergence of arithmetic problem solving skills from childhood to adulthood is characterized by maturation of common neural representations between distinct numerical operations, and involve distributed brain regions important for representing and manipulating numerical quantity. More broadly, our findings demonstrate that representational analysis provides a powerful approach for uncovering fundamental mechanisms by which children develop proficiencies that are a hallmark of human cognition. Published by Elsevier Ltd.