title: Impact of optokinetic stimulation on mental arithmetic.
abstract: Solving arithmetic problems has been shown to induce shifts of spatial attention, subtraction problems orienting attention to the left side, and addition problems to the right side of space. At the neurofunctional level, the activations elicited by the solving of arithmetical problems resemble those elicited by horizontal eye movements. Whether overt orientation of attention (i.e., eye movements) can be linked to the solving procedure is, however, still under debate. In the present study, we used optokinetic stimulation (OKS) to trigger automatic eye movements to orient participants' overt attention to the right or to the left of their visual field while they were solving addition or subtraction problems. The results show that, in comparison to leftward OKS and a control condition, rightward OKS facilitates the solving of addition problems that necessitate a carrying procedure. Subtraction solving was unaffected by leftward or rightward OKS. These results converge with previous findings to show that attentional shifts are functionally related to mental arithmetic processing.
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche en Sciences Psychologiques and Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Place Cardinal Mercier, 10, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. nicolas.masson@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6989-3375
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Masson
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche en Sciences Psychologiques and Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Place Cardinal Mercier, 10, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. mauro.pesenti@uclouvain.be.
authors.forename: Mauro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Pesenti
authors.affiliation: Institut de Recherche en Sciences Psychologiques and Institute of Neuroscience, Université catholique de Louvain, Place Cardinal Mercier, 10, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
authors.forename: Valérie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Dormal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005133:Eye Movements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008433:Mathematics; D008606:Mental Processes; D008875:Middle Aged; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D014794:Visual Fields; D055815:Young Adult