What difference does a year of schooling make?: Maturation of brain response and connectivity between 2nd and 3rd grades during arithmetic problem solving

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.05.013

NeuroImage

Volume 57, Issue 3, 1 August 2011, Pages 796-808

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.05.013 Get rights and content

Abstract

Early elementary schooling in 2nd and 3rd grades (ages 7–9) is an important period for the acquisition and mastery of basic mathematical skills. Yet, we know very little about neurodevelopmental changes that might occur over a year of schooling. Here we examine behavioral and neurodevelopmental changes underlying arithmetic problem solving in a well-matched group of 2nd (n = 45) and 3rd (n = 45) grade children. Although 2nd and 3rd graders did not differ on IQ or grade- and age-normed measures of math, reading and working memory, 3rd graders had higher raw math scores (effect sizes = 1.46–1.49) and were more accurate than 2nd graders in an fMRI task involving verification of simple and complex two-operand addition problems (effect size = 0.43). In both 2nd and 3rd graders, arithmetic complexity was associated with increased responses in right inferior frontal sulcus and anterior insula, regions implicated in domain-general cognitive control, and in left intraparietal sulcus (IPS) and superior parietal lobule (SPL) regions important for numerical and arithmetic processing. Compared to 2nd graders, 3rd graders showed greater activity in dorsal stream parietal areas right SPL, IPS and angular gyrus (AG) as well as ventral visual stream areas bilateral lingual gyrus (LG), right lateral occipital cortex (LOC) and right parahippocampal gyrus (PHG). Significant differences were also observed in the prefrontal cortex (PFC), with 3rd graders showing greater activation in left dorsal lateral PFC (dlPFC) and greater deactivation in the ventral medial PFC (vmPFC). Third graders also showed greater functional connectivity between the left dlPFC and multiple posterior brain areas, with larger differences in dorsal stream parietal areas SPL and AG, compared to ventral stream visual areas LG, LOC and PHG. No such between-grade differences were observed in functional connectivity between the vmPFC and posterior brain regions. These results suggest that even the narrow one-year interval spanning grades 2 and 3 is characterized by significant arithmetic task-related changes in brain response and connectivity, and argue that pooling data across wide age ranges and grades can miss important neurodevelopmental changes. Our findings have important implications for understanding brain mechanisms mediating early maturation of mathematical skills and, more generally, for educational neuroscience.

Research highlights

► fMRI response compared in 90 2nd and 3rd graders while solving addition problems. ► Prefrontal, parietal and ventral visual cortex activity greater in 3rd graders. ► Fronto-parietal functional connectivity greater in 3rd graders. ► Significant changes in brain response and connectivity observed over 1 year. ► Pooling data across wide age ranges can miss important neurodevelopmental changes.

Section snippets

Participants

Participants were recruited from a wide range of schools in the San Francisco Bay Area using mailings to schools, postings at libraries and community groups. Prior to inclusion in the study, parents completed a questionnaire which screened for handedness, history of psychiatric illness and medication use. If the child was right-handed and had no history of psychiatric illness or medication use, they continued to a neuropsychological assessment session. One child failed to meet the inclusion

Mathematical abilities

Mathematical abilities were assessed using the WIAT-II (Wechsler, 2001). This achievement battery includes nationally standardized measures of academic skills and problem-solving abilities which are normed by grade and time of the academic year (Fall, Spring, or Summer). The Numerical Operations subtest is a paper-and-pencil test that measures number writing and identification, rote counting, number production, and simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division calculations. For

Experimental procedures

The fMRI experiment consisted of four task conditions: (1) Complex addition, (2) Simple addition, (3) Number identification and (4) Passive fixation. In the Complex addition task, participants were presented with an equation involving two addends and asked to indicate, via a button box, whether the answer shown was correct or incorrect (e.g. “3 + 4 = 8”). One operand ranged from 2 to 9, the other from 2 to 5 (tie problems, such as “5 + 5 = 10”, were excluded), and answers were correct in 50% of the

Standardized cognitive measures

Table 1 summarizes performance on standardized cognitive measures in our sample of 2nd and 3rd grade children. IQ, assessed using the Wechsler Abbreviated Scales of Intelligence, was not significantly different between 2nd and 3rd graders. On grade-normed scores, 2nd and 3rd graders did not differ in math and reading ability (assessed using the WIAT-II). They also did not differ on age-normed working memory measures of the central executive, phonological capacity and visuo-spatial capacity

Behavioral differences between 2nd and 3rd graders

We compared accuracy and reaction time during fMRI task performance on the Simple and Complex addition problems (Fig. 1). A repeated measures ANOVA with between-subject factor Grade (2nd, 3rd) and within-subject factor Problem Type (Complex, Simple) was used to analyze differences in accuracy. The interaction between Grade and Problem Type was not significant (F(1,88) = 0.066, p = 0.798). However, the main effects of Grade and Problem Type were both significant. Accuracy on Complex addition (73.5%)

Discussion

In this study we examined neurodevelopmental changes during arithmetic problem solving over the one year interval spanning grades 2 and 3. To our knowledge, the ninety 7–9 year old children used in our study constitute the largest neuroimaging sample of mathematical reasoning and problem solving to date. In comparison, a recent meta-analysis by Houde et al. (2010) included a total of 88 participants from 7 studies. This large group allowed us to sample typically developing 2nd and 3rd graders

Acknowledgments

We thank Leeza Kondos and Sarah Wu for assistance with data acquisition, and Srikanth Ryali and Tianwen Chen for helpful discussions and implementation of Monte Carlo simulations. This research was supported by grants from the NIH (HD047520, HD059205, HD057610) and the NSF (DRL-0750340).

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What difference does a year of schooling make?: Maturation of brain response and connectivity between 2nd and 3rd grades during arithmetic problem solving

Abstract

Research highlights

Section snippets

Participants

Mathematical abilities

Experimental procedures

Standardized cognitive measures

Behavioral differences between 2nd and 3rd graders

Discussion

Acknowledgments

Devel. Rev.

Neuropsychologia

J. Exp. Child Psychol.

Trends Cogn. Sci.

Trends Cogn. Sci.

Neuropsychologia

Cogn. Brain Res.

NeuroImage

Cogn. Dev.

J. Exp. Child Psychol.

Neuropsychologia

NeuroImage

J. Exp. Child Psychol.

Learn. Individ. Differ.

J. Exp. Child Psychol.

NeuroImage

Cogn. Brain Res.

NeuroImage

Brain Res. Cogn. Brain Res.

NeuroImage

Learn. Individ. Differ.

Neuropsychologia

Neuron

NeuroImage

Dev. Rev.

Neuropsychologia

Neuron

Brain Cogn.

NeuroImage

NeuroImage

Electrophysiological studies of human face perception. I: potentials generated in occipitotemporal cortex by face and non-face stimuli

Cereb Cortex

Role of distinct parietal areas in arithmetic: an fMRI-guided TMS study

NeuroImage

Effects of development and enculturation on number representation in the brain

Nat. Rev. Neurosci.

Age-related changes in the activation of the intraparietal sulcus during nonsymbolic magnitude processing: an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study

J. Cogn. Neurosci.

Neural correlates of symbolic number processing in children and adults

NeuroReport

Cognitive arithmetic — evidence for retrieval and decision-processes in mental addition

J. Exp. Psychol. Hum. Learn.

Prefrontal regions involved in keeping information in and out of mind

Brain

Arithmetic rules and numeral format

Eur. J. Cogn. Psychol.

Functional imaging of numerical processing in adults and 4-y-old children

PLoS Biol.