Interventions for improving numerical abilities: Present and future

Kadosh, Roi Cohen; Dowker, Ann; Heine, Angela; Kaufmann, Liane; Kucian, Karin

doi:10.1016/j.tine.2013.04.001

Cited by 89 publications

(59 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…tRNS over prefrontal areas in particular was found to enhance numerical abilities and is thus of particular interest [39][40][41]. Likewise, it is also crucial to understand how brain stimulation may relate to individual traits, such as math anxiety [36].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurocognitive Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Arithmetic Learning and Performance: A Simultaneous tDCS-fMRI Study

et al. 2016

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BACKGROUND A small but increasing number of studies suggest that non-invasive brain stimulation by means of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) can modulate arithmetic processes that are essential for higher-order mathematical skills and that are impaired in dyscalculic individuals. However, little is known about the neural mechanisms underlying such stimulation effects, and whether they are specific to cognitive processes involved in different arithmetic tasks. METHODS We addressed these questions by applying tDCS during simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while participants were solving two types of complex subtraction problems: repeated problems, relying on arithmetic fact learning and problem-solving by fact retrieval, and novel problems, requiring calculation procedures. Twenty participants receiving left parietal anodal plus right frontal cathodal stimulation were compared with 20 participants in a sham condition. RESULTS We found a strong cognitive and neural dissociation between repeated and novel problems. Repeated problems were solved more accurately and elicited increased activity in the bilateral angular gyri and medial plus lateral prefrontal cortices. Solving novel problems, in contrast, was accompanied by stronger activation in the bilateral intraparietal sulci and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Most importantly, tDCS decreased the activation of the right inferior frontal cortex while solving novel (compared to repeated) problems, suggesting that the cathodal stimulation rendered this region unable to respond to the task-specific cognitive demand. CONCLUSIONS The present study revealed that tDCS during arithmetic problem-solving can modulate the neural activity in proximity to the electrodes specifically when the current demands lead to an engagement of this area.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurocognitive Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Arithmetic Learning and Performance: A Simultaneous tDCS-fMRI Study

et al. 2016

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“…Indeed, as working memory abilities are important for learning mathematics (Jarvis & Gathercole, 2003;McKenzie, Bull, & Gray, 2003;Noël, 2009;Noël et al, 2004;Toll et al, 2011), higher working memory capacities should allow the learners to enter into learning more easily. Thus, we predicted an impact of training on counting, Arabic number comparison and calculation as number knowledge (Cohen Kadosh, Dowker, Heine, Kaufmann, & Kucian, 2013;De Smedt et al, 2009) and arithmetic (Andersson, 2008;Andersson & Lyxell, 2007;Barrouillet & Lepine, 2005;Cohen Kadosh et al, 2013;De Smedt et al, 2009) have been shown to be related to CE capacities and two previous working memory training studies observed an improvement in early numeracy after training (Kroesbergen et al, 2014;Passolunghi & Costa, 2014). In addition, collection comparison might be enhanced after training as Kroesbergen et al (2014) observed higher performance in a dot collection comparison task after working memory training.…”

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confidence: 92%

Impact of Working Memory Training Targeting the Central Executive on Kindergarteners’ Numerical Skills

Honoré

Noël²

2017

JETS

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Working memory capacities are associated with mathematical development. Many studies have tried to improve working memory abilities through training. Furthermore, the central executive has been shown to be the component of working memory, which is the most strongly related to numerical and arithmetical skills. Therefore, we developed a training program that specifically targeted the central executive to examine the possible impact on kindergarteners' working memory and numerical abilities. Thirty-four 5-6 year olds were randomly assigned to the experimental or the control conditions. Both groups received 16 30-minute sessions of their respective training program. The experimental group was trained with games tapping the central executive and the control group received a vocabulary-learning program. The results showed an immediate training effect on one central executive task and an effect of training appeared on another central executive task at follow-up, 6 months later. However, no impact was observed on numerical and arithmetical skills.

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“…This is extremely timely and important since methods in mathematics education have received considerable interest in the past few years (Clements & Sarama, 2011;Cohen-Kadosh, Dowker, Heine, Kaufmann, & Kucian, 2013). It is also important because mathematics abilities contribute to many quality of life indicators such as employability, decision making, and participation in work and leisure activities (McCloskey, 2007).…”

Section: Ws • Global Spatial Deficitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Visuo-spatial processes as a domain-general factor impacting numerical development in atypical populations

Crollen¹,

Collignon²,

Noël³

2017

J. Numer. Cogn.

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In the past few years, the role of both domain-specific and domain-general factors on numerical development and mathematics achievement has been debated. In this paper, we focus on the role of visuo-spatial processes. We will more particularly review the numerical abilities of populations presenting atypical visuo-spatial processes: individuals with blindness, hemineglect, children presenting low visuo-spatial abilities, non-verbal learning disorder or Williams syndrome. We will show that math abilities of each population are relatively unique and are not necessarily associated with generalized math impairment. We will show that a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of each population gives further insights into our conceptual understanding of the development of numerical cognition. We will finally demonstrate how the comparison across disorders can impact on practical rehabilitation and educational strategies.Keywords: number, space, blindness, hemineglect, NVLD, Williams syndrome Journal of Numerical Cognition, 2017, Vol. 3(2), 344-364, doi:10.5964/jnc.v3i2.44 Received: 2016-05-10. Accepted: 2017-04-13. Published (VoR): 2017-12-22.Handling Editors: Silke Goebel, University of York, York, United Kingdom; André Knops, Humboldt-Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Hans-Christoph Nuerk, Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany *Corresponding author at: Centre for Mind/Brain Science, University of Trento, Corso Bettini, 31, 38068 Rovereto, This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, CC BY 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Over the past years, converging lines of evidence suggested that our representation of number is intrinsically linked to the way we represent other, non-numerical magnitude dimensions. Meck and Church (1983) were the first to speculate about a unique functional mechanism (the accumulator model) that supports numerosity and duration processing. This model was later extended by A Theory Of Magnitude (ATOM; Bueti & Walsh, 2009;Walsh, 2003) that conjectures the existence of a central magnitude system for the processing of numerosity, space and time. At the neurofunctional level, brain areas located along the right intraparietal sulcus (IPS) were accordingly shown to be involved in numerosity, length and duration discrimination (e.g., Bueti & Walsh, 2009;Cohen Kadosh et al., 2005;Dormal, Dormal, Joassin, & Pesenti, 2012;Dormal & Pesenti, 2009). At the behavioral level, several studies demonstrated similarities across different magnitude systems. Discriminating numerosities, surface areas and durations for example leads to similar patterns of performance in babies (Brannon, Lutz, & Cordes, 2006;de Hevia, Izard, Coubart, Spelke, & Streri, 2014;Lourenco & Longo, 2010;vanMarle & Wynn, 2006;Xu & Spelke, 2000; for a review, see Feigenson, 2007). And various similaritie...

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Interventions for improving numerical abilities: Present and future

Cited by 89 publications

References 78 publications

Neurocognitive Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Arithmetic Learning and Performance: A Simultaneous tDCS-fMRI Study

Neurocognitive Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation in Arithmetic Learning and Performance: A Simultaneous tDCS-fMRI Study

Impact of Working Memory Training Targeting the Central Executive on Kindergarteners’ Numerical Skills

Visuo-spatial processes as a domain-general factor impacting numerical development in atypical populations

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