title: Functional magnetic resonance imaging study of Piaget's conservation-of-number task in preschool and school-age children: a neo-Piagetian approach.
abstract: Jean Piaget's theory is a central reference point in the study of logico-mathematical development in children. One of the most famous Piagetian tasks is number conservation. Failures and successes in this task reveal two fundamental stages in children's thinking and judgment, shifting at approximately 7 years of age from visuospatial intuition to number conservation. In the current study, preschool children (nonconservers, 5-6 years of age) and school-age children (conservers, 9-10 years of age) were presented with Piaget's conservation-of-number task and monitored by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The cognitive change allowing children to access conservation was shown to be related to the neural contribution of a bilateral parietofrontal network involved in numerical and executive functions. These fMRI results highlight how the behavioral and cognitive stages Piaget formulated during the 20th century manifest in the brain with age.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Imaging Neurosciences and Applications to PathologieS (CI-NAPS), CNRS, Universities of Caen and Paris Descartes (Alliance for Higher Education and Research Sorbonne Paris Cité), 75005 Paris, France. olivier.houde@parisdescartes.fr
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Houdé
authors.forename: Arlette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pineau
authors.forename: Gaëlle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Leroux
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Poirel
authors.forename: Guy
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Perchey
authors.forename: Céline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lanoë
authors.forename: Amélie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lubin
authors.forename: Marie-Renée
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Turbelin
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rossi
authors.forename: Grégory
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Simon
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Delcroix
authors.forename: Franck
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Lamberton
authors.forename: Mathieu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vigneau
authors.forename: Gabriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wisniewski
authors.forename: Jean-René
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Vicet
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mazoyer
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003071:Cognition; D056344:Executive Function; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007600:Judgment; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D002666:Psychology, Child; D013850:Thinking