Event-Related Brain Potentials Dissociate the Developmental Time-Course of Automatic Numerical Magnitude Analysis and Cognitive Control Functions During the First Three Years of Primary School

The neuroscience basis and educational interventions of mathematical cognitive impairment and anxiety: a systematic literature review

Introduction

Mathematics is a fundamental subject with significant implications in education and neuroscience. Understanding the cognitive processes underlying mathematical cognition is crucial for enhancing educational practices. However, mathematical cognitive impairment and anxiety significantly hinder learning and application in this field. This systematic literature review aims to investigate the neuroscience basis and effective educational interventions for these challenges.

Methods

The review involved a comprehensive screening of 62 research articles that meet the ESSA evidence levels from multiple databases. The selection criteria focused on studies employing various methodologies, including behavioral experiments and neuroimaging techniques, to explore the neuroscience underpinnings and educational interventions related to mathematical cognitive impairment and anxiety.

Results

The review identified key themes and insights into the neuroscience basis of mathematical cognitive impairment and anxiety. It also examined their impact on educational practices, highlighting the interplay between cognitive processes and educational outcomes. The analysis of these studies revealed significant findings on how these impairments and anxieties manifest and can be addressed in educational settings.

Discussion

The review critically analyzes the shortcomings of existing research, noting gaps and limitations in current understanding and methodologies. It emphasizes the need for more comprehensive and diverse studies to better understand these phenomena. The discussion also suggests new directions and potential improvement strategies for future research, aiming to contribute to more effective educational interventions and enhanced learning experiences in mathematics.

Conclusion

This systematic review provides valuable insights into the neuroscience basis of mathematical cognitive impairment and anxiety, offering a foundation for developing more effective educational strategies. It underscores the importance of continued research in this area to improve educational outcomes and support learners facing these challenges.

Visual Occipito-Temporal N1 Sensitivity to Digits Across Elementary School

Number processing abilities are important for academic and personal development. The course of initial specialization of ventral occipito-temporal cortex (vOTC) sensitivity to visual number processing is crucial for the acquisition of numeric and arithmetic skills. We examined the visual N1, the electrophysiological correlate of vOTC activation across five time points in kindergarten (T1, mean age 6.60 years), middle and end of first grade (T2, 7.38 years; T3, 7.68 years), second grade (T4, 8.28 years), and fifth grade (T5, 11.40 years). A combination of cross-sectional and longitudinal EEG data of a total of 62 children (35 female) at varying familial risk for dyslexia were available to form groups of 23, 22, 27, 27, and 42 participants for each of the five time points. The children performed a target detection task which included visual presentation of single digits (DIG), false fonts (FF), and letters (LET) to derive measures for coarse (DIG vs. FF) and fine (DIG vs. LET) digit sensitive processing across development. The N1 amplitude analyses indicated coarse and fine sensitivity characterized by a stronger N1 to digits than false fonts across all five time points, and stronger N1 to digits than letters at all but the second (T2) time point. In addition, lower arithmetic skills were associated with stronger coarse N1 digit sensitivity over the left hemisphere in second grade (T4), possibly reflecting allocation of more attentional resources or stronger reliance on the verbal system in children with poorer arithmetic skills. To summarize, our results show persistent visual N1 sensitivity to digits that is already present early on in pre-school and remains stable until fifth grade. This pattern of digit sensitivity development clearly differs from the relatively sharp rise and fall of the visual N1 sensitivity to words or letters between kindergarten and middle of elementary school and suggests unique developmental trajectories for visual processing of written characters that are relevant to numeracy and literacy.

The reliability of visual ERP components in children across the first year of school

Event-related potentials (ERPs) are increasingly used as neurophysiological markers of perceptual and cognitive processes conveying risk for psychopathology. However, little is known about the reliability of ERP components during childhood, a time of substantial brain maturation. In the present study, we examine the early visual ERP components (P1, N170, VPP), frequently examined as indicators of attentional bias, for 110 children at kindergarten (T1) and first grade (T2). Children performed a Go/Nogo task at both time points, with exact stimuli changed to reduce habituation. All components showed increases in absolute amplitude and the P1 and VPP also showed decreases in latency. Retest reliability across time was good to very good for amplitude measures (Pearson rs ranging from .54 for N170 to .69 for P1) and low to very good for latencies (rs from .34 for P1 to .60 for N170), despite the change in visual stimuli. Although there was some evidence of moderation by sex, early visual ERP components appear to be a reliable measure of individual differences in attention processing in middle childhood. This has implications for the use of early visual ERP components as trait-like markers for individual differences in perceptual processes in developmental research.

ERP Evidence for Inhibitory Control Deficits in Test-Anxious Individuals

Introduction: Individuals with test anxiety [i.e., high test anxiety (HTA)] always treat tests/examinations as a potential threat. This cognitive mode impairs these individuals' ability of inhibitory control and leads to a high level of anxiety. However, characterizing aspects of HTA's impaired inhibitory control ability are unclear and need to be studied. Methods: Forty-six participants were recruited and divided into a HTA (N = 26) and low test anxiety (LTA; i.e., healthy control; N = 20) group. Self-reports (Test Anxiety Scale, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for negative emotions) were obtained. An emotional Stroop (ES) task and a numerical Stroop (NS) task, causing different types of interferences, were used for assessing the emotional and cognitive aspects of attentional control ability (behavioral data). Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were registered to further assess processing stages related to different aspects of attentional control ability. Results: Compared with the LTA group, the HTA group has inhibitory control deficits of both emotional (see ERP components P1-P2-N2 and P3) and cognitive (see ERP component P3) interference. Compared with the LTA group, the HTA doesn't have lower accuracy in neither ES nor NS but displays longer reaction times only in ES. Additionally, the HTA group's ES results also show that (1) the degree of emotional interference indicates the level of an individual's anxiety, and (2) the ERP component P2 may serve as an index of the level of test anxiety. Conclusion: HTA individuals have extensive inhibitory deficits for both emotional and cognitive aspects; however, impairment impacts more on emotional aspects than on cognitive aspects. Additionally, as compared to NS, the negative impact of more impaired processing stages on task performance is more substantial in ES.

Neural adaptation to non-symbolic number and visual shape: an electrophysiological study

Several studies assumed that the analysis of numerical information happens in a fast and automatic manner in the human brain. Utilizing the high temporal resolution of electroencephalography (EEG) in a passive oddball adaptation paradigm, we compared event-related brain potentials (ERPs) evoked by unattended shape changes and unattended numerosity changes. We controlled visual stimulus properties in a stringent manner. Unattended changes in shape elicited significant, gradual adaptation effects in the range of early visual components, indicating the fast and automatic processing of shapes. Changes in numerosity did not elicit significant changes in these early ERP components. The lack of early number-specific effects was qualified by a significant interaction between Shape and Number conditions. Number change elicited gradual ERP effects only on late ERP components. We conclude that numerosity is a higher-level property assembled from naturally correlating perceptual cues and hence, it is identified later in the cognitive processing stream.

Electrophysiological evidence for the involvement of the approximate number system in preschoolers' processing of spoken number words

Little is known about the neural underpinnings of number word comprehension in young children. Here we investigated the neural processing of these words during the crucial developmental window in which children learn their meanings and asked whether such processing relies on the Approximate Number System. ERPs were recorded as 3- to 5-year-old children heard the words one, two, three, or six while looking at pictures of 1, 2, 3, or 6 objects. The auditory number word was incongruent with the number of visual objects on half the trials and congruent on the other half. Children's number word comprehension predicted their ERP incongruency effects. Specifically, children with the least number word knowledge did not show any ERP incongruency effects, whereas those with intermediate and high number word knowledge showed an enhanced, negative polarity incongruency response (N(inc)) over centroparietal sites from 200 to 500 msec after the number word onset. This negativity was followed by an enhanced, positive polarity incongruency effect (P(inc)) that emerged bilaterally over parietal sites at about 700 msec. Moreover, children with the most number word knowledge showed ratio dependence in the P(inc) (larger for greater compared with smaller numerical mismatches), a hallmark of the Approximate Number System. Importantly, a similar modulation of the P(inc) from 700 to 800 msec was found in children with intermediate number word knowledge. These results provide the first neural correlates of spoken number word comprehension in preschoolers and are consistent with the view that children map number words onto approximate number representations before they fully master the verbal count list.

My brain knows numbers! - an ERP study of preschoolers' numerical knowledge

This study investigated brain activity in numerical processing at early stages of development. Brain activity of preschoolers was measured while they performed a numerical Stroop task. Participants were asked to decide which of two digits was numerically or physically larger. Behavioral distance and size congruity effects (SiCEs) were found. However, a reverse facilitation was observed, where responses to neutral trials were faster than to congruent ones. The event-related potentials data showed the expected distance effect at occipitoparietal scalp areas. Moreover, conflict was related to effects both at frontal and parietal scalp areas. In addition, there was a difference between the timing of the interference compared to the facilitation components in the SiCE. In parietal scalp areas, facilitation was significant in an early time window and interference was significant at a later time window. This is consistent with the idea that facilitation and interference are separate processes. Our findings indicate that children as young as 5–6 years old can automatically process the numerical meaning of numerals. In addition, our findings are consistent with the idea that, children might use both frontal and parietal areas in order to process irrelevant numerical information.

An electrophysiological investigation of non-symbolic magnitude processing: numerical distance effects in children with and without mathematical learning disabilities

INTRODUCTION

The aim of the present study was to probe electrophysiological effects of non-symbolic numerical processing in 20 children with mathematical learning disabilities (mean age = 99.2 months) compared to a group of 20 typically developing matched controls (mean age = 98.4 months).

METHODS

EEG data were obtained while children were tested with a standard non-symbolic numerical comparison paradigm that allowed us to investigate the effects of numerical distance manipulations for different set sizes, i.e., the classical subitizing, counting and estimation ranges. Effects of numerical distance manipulations on event-related potential (ERP) amplitudes as well as activation patterns of underlying current sources were analyzed.

RESULTS

In typically developing children, the amplitudes of a late parietal positive-going ERP component showed systematic numerical distance effects that did not depend on set size. For the group of children with mathematical learning disabilities, ERP distance effects were found only for stimuli within the subitizing range. Current source density analysis of distance-related group effects suggested that areas in right inferior parietal regions are involved in the generation of the parietal ERP amplitude differences.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggest that right inferior parietal regions are recruited differentially by controls compared to children with mathematical learning disabilities in response to non-symbolic numerical magnitude processing tasks, but only for stimuli with set sizes that exceed the subitizing range.

Intentional subitizing: exploring the role of automaticity in enumeration

Subitizing is traditionally described as the rapid, preattentive and automatic enumeration of up to four items. Counting, by contrast, describes the enumeration of larger sets of items and requires slower serial shifts of attention. Although recent research has called into question the preattentive nature of subitizing, whether or not numerosities in the subitizing range can be automatically accessed is yet to be empirically tested. In the current study, participants searched for two pre-defined digits in a circular visual-search array. Distractor dots of various set sizes were placed at the centre of the array. Despite the relevance of the distractor numerosities to the target detection task, the distractors did not influence target detection, thereby suggesting that their numerosities were not automatically accessed in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, participants were explicitly instructed to enumerate the distractor dots. Here, congruent and incongruent distractor numerosities influenced the target detection task, thereby revealing that the distractor dots were capable of generating interference. Experiment 3 ensured that dots were attended by asking participants to detect the luminance of dots. Data confirmed that subitizing was not automatic. The present study also supported the alleged discontinuity between the subitizing and counting ranges because an examination of reaction time gradients in Experiment 2 found the counting gradient to be significantly steeper than the subitizing gradient. In sum, the results suggest that subitizing is a distinct but non-automatic style of enumeration.

The time course of symbolic number adaptation: oscillatory EEG activity and event-related potential analysis

Several functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies have used neural adaptation paradigms to detect anatomical locations of brain activity related to number processing. However, currently not much is known about the temporal structure of number adaptation. In the present study, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to elucidate the time course of neural events in symbolic number adaptation. The numerical distance of deviants relative to standards was manipulated. In order to avoid perceptual confounds, all levels of deviants consisted of perceptually identical stimuli. Multiple successive numerical distance effects were detected in event-related potentials (ERPs). Analysis of oscillatory activity further showed at least two distinct stages of neural processes involved in the automatic analysis of numerical magnitude, with the earlier effect emerging at around 200ms and the later effect appearing at around 400ms. The findings support for the hypothesis that numerical magnitude processing involves a succession of cognitive events.

Symbolic number: the integration of magnitude and spatial representations in children aged 6 to 8 years

The process of learning symbolic Arabic digits in early childhood requires that magnitude and spatial information integrates with the concept of symbolic digits. Previous research has separately investigated the development of automatic access to magnitude and spatial information from symbolic digits. However, developmental trajectories of symbolic number knowledge cannot be fully understood when considering components in isolation. In view of this, we have synthesized the existing lines of research and tested the use of both magnitude and spatial information with the same sample of British children in Years 1, 2, and 3 (6-8 years of age). The physical judgment task of the numerical Stroop paradigm demonstrated that automatic access to magnitude was present from Year 1 and the distance effect signaled that a refined processing of numerical information had developed. Additionally, a parity judgment task showed that the onset of the spatial-numerical association of response codes effect occurs in Year 2. These findings uncover the developmental timeline of how magnitude and spatial representations integrate with symbolic number knowledge during early learning of Arabic digits and resolve inconsistencies between previous developmental and experimental research lines.