[Contributions of neuroscience to the learning of numerical abilities]. / Aportaciones de la neurociencia al aprendizaje de las habilidades numericas.

INTRODUCTION: Mathematic difficulties are relatively frequent at school. With some frequency they appear associated to other troubles and learning disorders, thus provoking anxiety feelings in children. In case of not intervening on such difficulties their consequences may be extended until adulthood. Despite that, their intervention has not been widely administered, notably in the educational ambit. The main reason is that there is not a unique definition, which makes their detection not easy. However, some of the recent advances in neuroscience could improve this situation. AIM: To review and summarize the main contributions provided by the neuroimaging techniques to the learning of numerical abilities and their difficulties, and how these techniques could be useful to intervene on the educational practice. DEVELOPMENT: The ample advances of the neuroimaging techniques have allowed us the access to relevant information regarding the brain areas underlying each numerical task at childhood and at adulthood, and that made possible the design of intervention programs addressed to improve children' learning when there are any numerical difficulties. Some of the results obtained after the administration of these programs are positive, but they are not very generalizable yet. CONCLUSIONS: In the future it should be expanded the use of neuroimaging techniques in order to implement the explanation of learning processes and detecting areas that, in case of not being correctly activated, could lead to any mathematic difficulties. Ultimately, research supported by these techniques should assist the development of programs devoted to intervene on mathematics in the educational field.

TITLE: Aportaciones de la neurociencia al aprendizaje de las habilidades numericas.Introduccion. Las dificultades en matematicas son relativamente frecuentes en el aula. Pueden aparecer asociadas a otros trastornos y retrasos del desarrollo, provocando sentimientos de ansiedad. En caso de no intervenir sobre ellas, sus efectos pueden prolongarse durante la adultez. A pesar de ello, su intervencion no es frecuente, especialmente desde el ambito educativo, dado que al no existir una definicion unica de ellas, su deteccion en el aula no es facil. Algunos de los ultimos avances en neurociencia podrian mejorar esta situacion. Objetivo. Revisar y recapitular los principales conocimientos aportados por las tecnicas de neuroimagen al campo del aprendizaje de las habilidades numericas, sus dificultades y su intervencion en el ambito educativo. Desarrollo. El gran avance experimentado por las tecnicas de neuroimagen ha permitido conocer informacion importante respecto a las areas cerebrales que subyacen a cada tarea numerica en la infancia y en la edad adulta, lo que a su vez ha posibilitado el diseño de programas de intervencion en las dificultades en el aprendizaje de las matematicas. A pesar de que los resultados obtenidos tras su aplicacion son positivos, todavia no son generalizables. Conclusiones. En el futuro debe extenderse el uso de las tecnicas de neuroimagen en la explicacion del proceso de aprendizaje y deteccion de las areas que, de no activarse correctamente, pueden derivar en trastornos de las matematicas. En ultimo termino, la investigacion con dichas tecnicas debe favorecer el desarrollo de programas aplicados al trabajo de las matematicas en el ambito educativo.

Individual differences in arithmetic skill reflected in event-related brain potentials.

We used event-related brain potentials (ERP) to study the problem-size effect in individuals with high and low arithmetic skill. Participants were presented with a classic equality verification task, and problem size was manipulated by using small (e.g., 3+4), medium (e.g., 7+8) and large problems (e.g., 16+29). ERP analyses were time-locked to the onset of the second operand in order to address brain potentials during the production phase. High-skill individuals showed a positive slow wave when solving large problems and no differences in the ERP pattern when solving small and medium problems. In contrast, low-skill individuals showed a positive slow wave when solving medium and large problems. Given that differences between high and low skill individuals have been related to differences in calculation strategies, these results provide further support to the utility of using ERP as a signature of arithmetic strategy.

Does finger training increase young children's numerical performance?

Butterworth (1999) suggested that fingers are important in representing numerosities. Furthermore, scores on a finger gnosis test are a better predictor of numerical performance up to 3 years later than intellectual measures (Marinthe et al., 2001; Noël, 2005). We hypothesised that training in finger differentiation would increase finger gnosis and might also improve numerical performance. Accordingly, 47 first-grade children were selected and divided into 3 groups: children with poor finger gnosis who followed the finger-differentiation training programme (G1), a control-intervention who were trained in story comprehension (G2), and a group with high finger gnosis scores who just continued with normal school lessons (G3). The finger training consisted of 2 weekly sessions of half an hour each, for 8 weeks. Before the training period, children in G3 performed better in finger gnosis and enumeration than children in the two other groups. After the training period this pattern remained for the children in G2 and G3, but the children in G1 were significantly better than those in G2 at finger gnosis, representation of numerosities with fingers, and quantification tasks; they also tended to be better at the processing of Arabic digits. These results indicate that improving finger gnosis in young children is possible and that it can provide a useful support to learning mathematics. Such an approach could be particularly appropriate for children with a developmental Gerstmann syndrome. Theoretically, these results are important because they suggest a functional link between finger gnosis and number skills.