title: Neurocognitive mechanisms of mathematical giftedness: A literature review.
abstract: Mathematically gifted children/adolescents have demonstrated exceptional abilities and traits in logical reasoning, mental imagery, and creative thinking. In the field of cognitive neuroscience, the past studies on mathematically gifted brains have concentrated on investigating event-related brain activation regions, cerebral laterality of cognitive functions, functional specialization that is uniquely dedicated for specific cognitive purposes, and functional interactions among discrete brain regions. From structural and functional perspectives, these studies have witnessed both "general" and "unique" neural characteristics of mathematically gifted brains. In this article, the theoretical background, empirical studies, and neurocognitive mechanisms of mathematically gifted children/adolescents are reviewed. Based on the integration of the findings, some potential directions for the future research are identified and discussed.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Medical Imaging , Bengbu Medical College , Bengbu , Anhui 233030 , China.|b Key Lab of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, Research Center for Learning Science , Southeast University , Nanjing , Jiangsu 210096 , China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: b Key Lab of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, Research Center for Learning Science , Southeast University , Nanjing , Jiangsu 210096 , China.|c School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering , University of Essex , Colchester , UK.
authors.forename: John Q
authors.initials: JQ
authors.lastname: Gan
authors.affiliation: b Key Lab of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, Research Center for Learning Science , Southeast University , Nanjing , Jiangsu 210096 , China.
authors.forename: Haixian
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D002672:Child, Gifted / Q000523:psychology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics / Q000379:methods*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology
keywords: EEG; fMRI; mathematically gifted children/adolescents; neurocognitive mechanism