ERIC Number: EJ1344450
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Sep
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1750-8592
EISSN: EISSN-1750-8606
Available Date: N/A
The Emergence of a Brain Network for Numerical Thinking
Child Development Perspectives, v15 n3 p168-175 Sep 2021
Educated adults and children engage a network of frontal and parietal brain regions for numerical thinking. Recent studies document some prominent changes as this network emerges over development, including a unilateral right to bilateral shift in number-selective parietal brain activity, a strengthening of intra- and interhemispheric parietal connections, reduced engagement of prefrontal regions, and decoupling between prefrontal and parietal regions. Based on these findings, it appears that right parietal regions form an innate or early-emerging basis for representing numerical magnitudes, whereas left parietal regions support the representation of culturally acquired symbolic numbers that begin to emerge over childhood. Functional connections between parietal hemispheres and the parietal and prefrontal cortex likely support associations between magnitudes and symbols, as they are associated with numerical proficiency. Prefrontal regions appear to provide general cognitive resources to support these associations, engaging and correlating positively during the learning process and disengaging and correlating negatively after mastery.
Descriptors: Brain Hemisphere Functions, Numeracy, Cognitive Processes, Thinking Skills, Number Concepts
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www-wiley-com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1252445
Author Affiliations: N/A