title: Non-symbolic numerical distance effect in children with and without developmental dyscalculia: a parametric fMRI study.
abstract: This study investigated areas of brain activation related to non-symbolic distance effects in children with and without developmental dyscalculia (DD). We examined 15 children with DD (11.3 years) and 15 controls (10.6 years) by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Both groups displayed similar behavioral performance, but differences in brain activation were observed, particularly in the supplementary motor area and the right fusiform gyrus, where children with DD demonstrated stronger activation. These results suggest that dyscalculic children engage areas attributed to higher difficulty in response selection more than control children, possibly due to a deficient development of a spatial number representation in DD.
authors.affiliation: MR-Research Center, University Children's Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland. karin.kucian@kispi.uzh.ch
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kucian
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Loenneker
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: von Aster
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D060705:Dyscalculia / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D011930:Reaction Time; D013557:Switzerland; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology