Brain furrow may cause maths problem

Nature.com ^ | November 13, 2003

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

Scientists have homed in on a brain region that leaves some people struggling with mathematics. Their research might point up better ways to teach numbers.

The study looked at people with dyscalculia - the mathematical equivalent of dyslexia. Up to 6% of children are thought to suffer from the condition; they toil with times tables and can find it tough to add small numbers even as adults.

Dyscalculics have abnormal pulses of activity in a brain furrow called the right intraparietal sulcus, find Nicolas Molko of INSERM, the French Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, and his colleagues. The fissure helps the mind to conjure spatial images.

It was also unusually shallow and short in the 14 women that Molko's team scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging. The women had a genetic condition called Turner's syndrome, which is linked with dyscalculia.

The finding supports the idea that dyscalculics have difficulty conceiving arrangements of numbers, such as a line stretching from one to 100. "It goes very well with what has been found before," says neuropsychologist Monica Rosselli of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.

Molko hopes that brain imaging could eventually diagnose dyscalculics better than today's cognitive tests. The finding might also inform educational schemes that encourage affected children to use different strategies to number lines, say.

But dyscalculia is probably part of a wide spectrum of maths learning difficulties. Some people may have trouble keeping track of tens and units columns, others in recalling rote-learnt sums. "It's unlikely that one brain area can explain all of the problems," says developmental psychologist David Geary of the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Counting cost

Many studies attempt to get to the roots of dyslexia, but dyscalculia is an uncharted condition. This is partly because it is hard to tease apart from word, memory or attention disorders, with which it is often associated.

Diagnosis is further complicated because many people simply dislike maths. This might be due to mediocre teaching or low motivation. Some people almost have "a phobia for mathematics", says Rosselli.

It's unlikely that one brain area can explain all of the problems

More attention is now being focused on children's maths learning and disabilities following pressure from concerned parents and teachers. This year, for example, the US National Institutes of Health and Department of Education committed $18 million over five years to related research projects.

The intraparietal sulcus specifically has not been implicated in the abilities of maths prodigies. But areas of the cortex associated with spatial imagery, such as the parietal lobe - where the intraparietal sulcus is found - were unusually large in Albert Einstein's brain.

[Sweet_Sunflower29]

One of my sons has disgraphia, which is a similiar spatial orientation related problem.

[Izzy Dunne]

I have a condition called disleftia - inability to understand Democrats...

[EggsAckley]

Boy, did I have that problem in high school. And still do. I STILL do not know the whole multiplication table. Funny thing is though, I'm a musician, and have deep understanding of music theory, which is nothing more than a specific mathematic system. Weird.

Also, I can always come to within a dollar or two at the check stand in the grocery store. My brain subconsciously adds up every item.

[Consort]

I had dyscotheque.

[concerned about politics]

No brain leads to liberalism.

[mikrofon]

This is a job for...

Count Calcula

[BenLurkin]

[Spirited]

Thank you for posting this.
I have faced this in teaching and in family.
It is an enormous problem and I am certain that what will come of the budgeted money is almost nothing. I trust neither of the organizations reaping benefits for nothing.

I am, however, encouraged to see that perhaps more people will become aware that such problems exist beyond dyslexia.
It seems so difficult for man-average to do anything but sneer at dyslexia, dyscalculia or disgraphia, etc.

I wish with every fiber of my being that the sneerers could face the problem in their own families or students and experience the hurt, the wounding, the familial harm and the monetary/economic repercussions experienced by those so afflicted. It is it is akin to a cancer patient being flipped off for not being able to keep up with a healthy lout running a marathon.

If you and yours do not have such problems, please be thankful enough to also wish those who do well and speak kindly of their plight and their efforts.

[VeritatisSplendor]

You are correct that this is a real problem, but unfortunately it will be used as an excuse by a great many people. A very small fraction of the population has a congenital handicap in thinking mathematically. If you take people whose intelligence is otherwise normal, well over 95% are perfectly capable of learning mathematics through the high school curriculum (up to but not including calculus). But because it is badly taught, and because people aren't ashamed of saying "I was never any good at math" as they would be of saying "I was never any good at reading and writing", most people don't achieve this, even though mathematics is increasingly necessary in our technological society.

Further more, even the less-than-5% fraction who have "dyscalculia" can with intensive teaching and effort learn math anyway, just as those with "dyslexia" can learn to read and write well (but only with lots of special help, the ordinary school classes will not suffice).