The impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
George ZacharopoulosRoi Cohen Kadosh

Abstract

Formal education has a long-term impact on an individual's life. However, our knowledge of the effect of a specific lack of education, such as in mathematics, is currently poor but is highly relevant given the extant differences between countries in their educational curricula and the differences in opportunities to access education. Here we examined whether neurotransmitter concentrations in the adolescent brain could classify whether a student is lacking mathematical education. Decreased γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentration within the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) successfully classified whether an adolescent studies math and was negatively associated with frontoparietal connectivity. In a second experiment, we uncovered that our findings were not due to preexisting differences before a mathematical education ceased. Furthermore, we showed that MFG GABA not only classifies whether an adolescent is studying math or not, but it also predicts the changes in mathematical reasoning ∼19 mo later. The present results extend previous work in animals that has emphasized the role of GABA neurotransmission in synaptic and network plasticity and highlight the effect of a specific lack of education on MFG GABA concentration and learning-...Continue Reading

References

Dec 1, 1991·Trends in Neurosciences·E CherubiniY Ben-Ari
Nov 1, 1989·Journal of Neurophysiology·D A McCormick
Sep 27, 2000·Psychological Research·D T Stuss, M P Alexander
Jun 19, 2001·NMR in Biomedicine·S W Provencher
Nov 21, 2001·Nature Reviews. Neuroscience·J Duncan
Dec 9, 2003·Brain Research. Cognitive Brain Research·M DelazerT Benke
Jun 24, 2006·Neuropsychology Review·Julie A Alvarez, Eugene Emory
Mar 24, 2007·Current Biology : CB·Roi Cohen KadoshAlexander T Sack
Apr 27, 2007·Nature·Fereshteh S NugentJulie A Kauer
Sep 6, 2007·Neuropsychology Review·María Beatriz Jurado, Mónica Rosselli
Oct 9, 2007·AJNR. American Journal of Neuroradiology·K AydinC Ozturk
Nov 21, 2007·Developmental Psychology·Greg J DuncanCrista Japel
Dec 22, 2007·Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology : the Official Journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists·Raymond C K ChanEric Y H Chen
Mar 13, 2008·Nature Reviews. Neuroscience·Daniel Ansari
Oct 25, 2008·Nature·John BeddingtonSandy M Thomas
Dec 10, 2008·Neuroimaging Clinics of North America·Balasrinivasa R SajjaPonnada A Narayana
Apr 24, 2009·The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience·Charlotte J StaggHeidi Johansen-Berg
May 12, 2009·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·L ZamarianM Delazer
Oct 16, 2010·NeuroImage·Marie Arsalidou, Margot J Taylor
Nov 4, 2010·Cerebral Cortex·Kathrin Cohen KadoshMark H Johnson
Nov 9, 2010·Current Biology : CB·Roi Cohen KadoshVincent Walsh
Feb 22, 2011·Current Opinion in Neurobiology·Pablo E CastilloReed C Carroll
Mar 18, 2011·Magnetic Resonance in Medicine : Official Journal of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine·Gülin Oz, Ivan Tkáč
Apr 19, 2012·Neural Computation·Ueli RutishauserRodney J Douglas
Apr 19, 2012·Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology·Christian Lüscher, Robert C Malenka
May 31, 2012·Brain Connectivity·Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, Alfonso Nieto-Castanon
Jun 5, 2012·Cerebral Cortex·Kathrin Cohen KadoshSarah-Jayne Blakemore
Oct 2, 2012·Annual Review of Psychology·Adele Diamond
Feb 16, 2013·NMR in Biomedicine·Benoît SchallerRolf Gruetter
Apr 9, 2013·Nature Neuroscience·Wataru InoueJaideep S Bains
May 1, 2013·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Kaustubh SupekarVinod Menon
May 4, 2013·Psychological Science·Stuart J Ritchie, Timothy C Bates
May 21, 2013·Current Biology : CB·Albert SnowballRoi Cohen Kadosh
Jun 27, 2013·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Kristopher GerardiStephan Meier

❮ Previous
Next ❯

Software Mentioned

CONN
LCModel
SPM12
MFG GABA
VeSPA

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Brain developing: Influences & Outcomes

This feed focuses on influences that affect the developing brain including genetics, fetal development, prenatal care, and gene-environment interactions. Here is the latest research in this field.