Nurturing the Mathematical Brain: Home Numeracy Practices are Associated With Children’s Neural Responses to Digit.

• In Event: Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Topic - Cognitive Processes

Abstract

Disparities in socio-economic status (SES) and home numeracy environment (HNE) contribute to large variations in children’s math development. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the relation between these environmental factors and math learning are unknown. Here, we asked parents of 8-year-olds (n=47) to complete a questionnaire (adapted from Lefevre et al. 2009) assessing SES and quality of the HNE. The questionnaire notably distinguished between home numeracy practices that were informal versus formal (i.e., practices in which math learning is incidental versus practices in which math learning is intended). Math skills of children and parents were estimated using a standardized Math-Fluency test in which participants solve simple addition, subtraction, and multiplication problems within a 3-min time limit (WJ-III). Finally, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure brain activity in children during an adaptation task in which either digits or wordswere repeatedly presented (the task was adapted from Perrachione and colleagues 2016). Specifically, we compared activity associated with blocks of different stimuli (no-adaptation) versus activity associated with blocks of identical stimuli (adaptation). This allowed us to measure the neural adaptation to the repetition of digits and words in children, thereby assessing how sensitive was their brain to the presentation of numerical and non-numerical information.
At a behavioral level, children’s math fluency was positively related to the frequency of formal practices, but only when those were relatively advanced (at or above children’s level; r = .30, p = .021). There was no relation with family SES (education: r = .11, p = .23; income: r = .04, p = .38). Analyses of fMRI data revealed that children’s math fluency was positively related to the digit adaptation (but not word adaptation) effect in the left intraparietal sulcus (IPS; digit: r=.47, p < .001; word: r = -.07, p = .68). The digit adaptation effect in the left IPS also increased with both SES (education: r = .39, p = .003; income: r = .33, p = .011) and frequency of advanced formal practices (r = .32, p = .013). There was no relation between either SES or HNE for the word adaptation effect in the left IPS (all rs < .20, all ps > .20). Finally, we found that the processing of digits in the left IPS fully mediated the relation between formal practices and children’s math fluency skills, such that the direct effect of advanced formal practices on children’s math fluency was no longer significant after accounting for the effect of HNE on the digit adaptation effect and for the effect of the digit adaptation effect on math fluency (indirect/total effect = 0.45, Figure 1).
Thus, our findings suggest that home numeracy practices may affect children’s math skills by impacting the response to symbolic numerical information in the IPS.

Authors

• Cléa Girard, Universite Lyon 1
  Presenting Author

• Thomas Bastelica
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jessica Leone
  Non-Presenting Author

• Justine Epinat-Duclos, Inserm
  Non-Presenting Author

• Léa Longo, Inserm
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jérôme Prado, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
  Non-Presenting Author