Brain correlates of early math and number skills: tracing changes related to age and instruction in a natural experiment

儿童大脑中数字能力机制的个体差异如何与一年级数学成绩有关，一年级的教学如何驱动这种大脑机制的变化？这些问题是通过一系列脑成像测量来解决的，包括脑结构（MRI，DTI），血流变化（fMRI）和电反应（ERP）。前后脑测量跟踪一个学年中两组学生的变化，这两组学生被“学校的截止日期”分为年轻的一年级学生和老年人。这种群体对比使一年级教学的影响与成熟和上学的影响区分开来。

How do individual differences in children's brain mechanism for number abilities relate to gains during first grade mathematics, and how might first grade instruction drive changes in such brain mechanisms? These questions are addressed using a battery of brain imaging measures including brain structure (MRI,DTI), bloodflow changes (fMRI), and electrical responses (ERP). Pre-post brain measures track changes over the course of a school year within two groups segregated by a "school's cutoff date" into young first graders and old kindergarteners. This group contrast allows the impact of first grade instruction to be differentiated from maturation and school attendance.