In our education system there are numerous children who, despite all efforts, remain poorly in math. A new study could now explain why this is so. How well someone can learn to calculate depends not only on the learning environment, but also on the innate networking in his brain. Specifically, determined mathematical skills are related to neuronal links in the frontoparietal network of our brain. In some people, these nerve connections can be intensified by electrical brain stimulation, as the experiment proves. This could make math learning significantly easier.
With cognitive skills such as reading, calculating or learning to learn, it depends a lot on early support and practice. Children who learn to read or calculate and stay tuned can actively improve their reading or math competence over time. Factors such as the socio -economic status that makes good training more likely are also beneficial here. In the case of mathematical skills, however, exercise sometimes has little or no improvement. The math competence of some people stagnates from childhood to adulthood-no matter how much they are encouraged. Between 24 and 29 percent of adults in industrialized countries such as Germany, France and Great Britain therefore have similar mathematical skills such as five to seven year olds or are even below it, an OECD report from 2016 shows.
“So far, most efforts have focused on changing the learning environment – the training of teachers, the redesign of curricula – while the learners’ neurobiology has largely been overlooked,” says senior author Roi Cohen Kadosh from the University of Surrey in Great Britain. “However, numerous research results have shown that biological factors often explain the educational results in mathematics more than environmental -related.” Accordingly, the individual math services are also related to innate neurobiological brain properties, which cannot be changed by lessons or tutoring.
Better math competence thanks to strong neuronal links
Researchers around Kadosh and first author George Zacharopoulos from the University of Oxford have now investigated the brain properties. To do this, they had 72 test subjects between the ages of 18 and 30 for five days processed for five days that either calculated the methodical or required a rigid memorization of a solution. In the meantime, the neuroscientists analyzed their brain activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) – more precisely: the strength of the neuronal connections between brain regions associated with the learning of mathematics.
In addition, the researchers stimulated the brain of the participants with weak electrical streams that do not hurt (TRNS). A group of 24 test subjects received a stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), which is important for calculations because it helps with concentration and problem solving. In a second group, the stimulation on the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), which is connected to the memory of memorized by memorized. The remaining 24 test subjects received placebo stimulation. The researchers then compared the learning success of the groups and individual participants.
The result: When solving math tasks, those who showed a stronger neuronal link between the DLPFC, the PPC and the hippocampus of their brain performed. The hippocampus fulfills many tasks; In connection with the experiment, he was responsible for generalizing solutions across problems. The test subjects, whose hippocampus was well connected to the DLPFC and the PPC in the frontoparietal network, were therefore able to better calculate the math tasks and showed a greater learning success, as the team explained. After targeted electrical stimulation of the DLPFC, the test subjects of this group also performed better than at the beginning of the experiment. However, these reinforced neuronal connections did not help them. Stimulation of the PPC also proved to be ineffective. “In summary, these results indicate that the most important causal effect of connectivity is on learning in the DLPFC,” the team writes.
Brain stimulation could help better math notes
Zacharopoulos and his colleagues conclude that brain stimulation can help with math learning under certain circumstances. This would be effective in people who have weaker neuronal connections to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) from birth than others and therefore in math lessons with biodegrading disadvantages. Knowledge could now develop innovative brain stimulation techniques that tackle these neurobiological restrictions. This would not only help those affected to better math grades at school, but also to more diverse career paths and better life chances. “This would reduce long -term inequalities in terms of income, health and well -being,” said Kadosh.
During the experiment, the researchers also measured using a magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) how much glutamate and Gaba were available in the brain of the test subjects and how the mirrors of these two brain messengers changed in the course of the experiment. These measured values indicate the current learning and change ability of the brain. In fact, Zacharopoulos and his colleagues found a connection between these two neurobot substances and the communication between the brain areas for arithmetic, memorizing and memory in the frontoparietal network. However, this connection was very individual and is now to be examined more precisely in follow -up studies. This may result in a forecast test to predict to whom a stimulation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is helpful for math learning and for whom is not. Further tests should also check how long the stimulation booster lasts.
Source: George Zacharopoulos (University of Oxford) et al.; Plos Biology, DOI: 10.1371/Journal.pbio.3003200
