Influence of cognitive strategies on the pattern of cortical activation during mental subtraction. A functional imaging study in human subjects.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 1.5 T was used to investigate the influence of cognitive strategies on cortical activation during mental calculation. Twenty-nine right-handed subjects performed a serial subtraction of prime numbers. Even though a common corpus of brain areas was activated during this mental calculation, differences appeared between subjects in function of their spontaneous cognitive strategy. In subjects using a so called verbal strategy (n=15), the main activation was located in the whole left dorsolateral frontal cortex with a little activation of the inferior parietal cortex. In subjects using a so called visual strategy (n=14), a bilateral activation in the prefrontal cortex and a high activation in the left inferior parietal cortex were observed. These results demonstrate that numbers are processed through a distributed network of cortical areas, the lateralization of which is clearly influenced by subject strategy.
Burbaud
P
P
Laboratoire de Neurophysiologie CNRS UMR 5543, Université Victor Segalen, 146 rue Léo Saignat, 33076, Bordeaux, France. bdneuro@umr.5543-u.bordeaux2.fr
Camus
O
O
Guehl
D
D
Bioulac
B
B
Caillé
J
J
Allard
M
M
D000328:Adult; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D014785:Vision, Ocular / Q000502:physiology