Neural substrates of mathematical reasoning: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of neocortical activation during performance of the Necessary Arithmetic Operations Test
V. Prabhakaran et al., Neural substrates of mathematical reasoning: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of neocortical activation during performance of the Necessary Arithmetic Operations Test, NEUROPSYCHL, 15(1), 2001, pp. 115-127
Brain activation was examined using functional magnetic resonance imaging d
uring mathematical problem solving in 7 young healthy participants. Problem
s were selected from the Necessary Arithmetic Operations Test (NAOT: R. B.
Ekstrom, J. W. French, H. H. Harman, & D. Dermen, 1976). Participants solve
d 3 types of problems: 2-operation problems requiring mathematical reasonin
g and text processing, I-operation problems requiring text processing but m
inimal mathematical reasoning, and 0-operation problems requiring minimal t
ext processing and controlling sensorimotor demands of the NAOT problems. T
wo-operation problems yielded major activations in bilateral frontal region
s similar to those found in other problem-solving tasks, indicating that th
e processes mediated by these regions subserve many forms of reasoning. Fin
dings suggest a dissociation in mathematical problem solving between reason
ing, mediated by frontal cortex, and text processing, mediated by temporal
cortex.