Effect of abacus mental calculation on laterality of occipital in children: a fMRI study / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To explore the activation on occipital lobe in children with and without abacus mental calculation training when they engaged in different calculation tasks with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).Then approach the laterality of occipital lobe in abacus mental calculation.Methods fMRI was performed in children trained with( trained group)and without( untrained group) abacus mental calculation( seventeen in each group) when they engaged in addition,subtraction,multiplication,division,and number-object control judging tasks.The data processing and statistical analysis of original image were performed on SPM 2.0 ( statistical parametric mapping 2.0) and the related-brain functional areas were obtained.The laterality index (LI) was used to assess the laterality of occipital lobe.Results The performance of the trained group with better correctness and shorter reaction time was much better than that of the untrained group (P＜0.01).The laterality degree of occipital lobe in the trained group (-0.15,0.22,0.24,-0.06 ) was lower than that of the untrained group (0.35,0.75,0.75,0.29).Conclusion Abacus mental calculation can obviously enhance the capacity of mental calculation.The laterality degree of occipital lobe in the trained group is lower than that of untrained group.It is conducive to the balanced development of bilateral cerebral hemisphere.