title: Aberrant spatiotemporal activation profiles associated with math difficulties in children: a magnetic source imaging study.
abstract: The study investigates the relative degree and timing of cortical activation in parietal, temporal, and frontal regions during simple arithmetic tasks in children who experience math difficulties. Real-time brain activity was measured with magnetoencephalography during simple addition and numerosity judgments in students with math difficulties and average or above average reading skills (MD group, N = 14), students with below average scores on both math and basic reading tests (MD/RD group, N = 16) and students with above average scores on standardized math tests (control group, N = 25). Children with MD showed increased degree of neurophysiological activity in inferior and superior parietal regions in the right hemisphere compared to both controls and MD/RD students. Left hemisphere inferior parietal regions did not show the expected task-related changes and showed activity at a significant temporal delay. MD students also showed increased early engagement of prefrontal cortices. Taken together, these findings may indicate increased reliance on a network of right hemisphere parietal (and possibly frontal areas as well) for simple math calculations in students who experience math difficulties but perform within normal range in reading.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Children's Learning Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, TX, USA. ahis.simos@gmail.com
authors.forename: Panagiotis G
authors.initials: PG
authors.lastname: Simos
authors.forename: Kassiani
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kanatsouli
authors.forename: Jack M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fletcher
authors.forename: Shirin
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sarkari
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Juranek
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cirino
authors.forename: Antony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Passaro
authors.forename: Andrew C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Papanicolaou