Abstract
Mathematical abilities are essential for an individual, as they predict career prospects among many other abilities. However, little is known about whether neural correlates of arithmetic problem difficulty differ between individuals with high and low math ability. For instance, the difficulty of two-digit addition and subtraction increases whenever a carry or borrow operation is required. Therefore, we systematically investigated the spatial and temporal neural correlates of the carry and borrow effects for high and low performers in a written production paradigm using combined functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and event-related potential (ERP) measurements. Effects of arithmetic difficulty interacted with an individual’s math ability. High performers showed increased frontal activation especially in the left inferior frontal gyrus associated with the carry and borrow effects, whereas low performers did not. Furthermore, high and low performers even differed in their early processing of the borrow effect, as reflected by differences in slow waves at 1000–1500 ms at frontal sites. We conclude that the processing of arithmetic difficulty relies on an individual’s mathematical ability, and suggest that individual differences should be taken into account when investigating mental arithmetic in an ecologically valid assessment.
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the LEAD Graduate School & Research Network [GSC1028], which is funded within the framework of the Excellence Initiative of the German federal and state governments supporting CA and TD. This research was further funded by a grant from the Science Campus Tuebingen, project 8.4 to HCN supporting MS. We acknowledge support by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and Open Access Publishing Fund of University of Tuebingen. Furthermore, we want to thank the lab of Ippeita Dan and Minako Uga for virtual registration of the fNIRS coordinates. Finally, we want to thank Marielle Borsche and Meryem Asiye Banabak for assistance in the measurements and Julianne Skinner for language proofreading of the paper.
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Artemenko, C., Soltanlou, M., Dresler, T. et al. The neural correlates of arithmetic difficulty depend on mathematical ability: evidence from combined fNIRS and ERP. Brain Struct Funct 223, 2561–2574 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-018-1618-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-018-1618-0