Post by misty on Jul 4, 2006 0:31:47 GMT -5
Brain furrow may cause maths problem
Dyscalculia appears to cloud number images.
by Helen Pearson
news@nature.com
Scientists have homed in on a brain region that leaves some people struggling with mathematics. Their research might point up better ways to teach numbers1.
The study looked at people with dyscalculia - the mathematical equivalent of dyslexia. Up to 6% of children are thought to suffer from the condition; they toil with times tables and can find it tough to add small numbers even as adults.
Dyscalculics have abnormal pulses of activity in a brain furrow called the right intraparietal sulcus, find Nicolas Molko of INSERM, the French Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, and his colleagues. The fissure helps the mind to conjure spatial images.
It was also unusually shallow and short in the 14 women that Molko's team scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging. The women had a genetic condition called Turner's syndrome, which is linked with dyscalculia.
The finding supports the idea that dyscalculics have difficulty conceiving arrangements of numbers, such as a line stretching from one to 100. "It goes very well with what has been found before," says neuropsychologist Monica Rosselli of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.................
www.dyscalculiaforum.com/readarticle.php?article_id=21
Dyscalculia appears to cloud number images.
by Helen Pearson
news@nature.com
Scientists have homed in on a brain region that leaves some people struggling with mathematics. Their research might point up better ways to teach numbers1.
The study looked at people with dyscalculia - the mathematical equivalent of dyslexia. Up to 6% of children are thought to suffer from the condition; they toil with times tables and can find it tough to add small numbers even as adults.
Dyscalculics have abnormal pulses of activity in a brain furrow called the right intraparietal sulcus, find Nicolas Molko of INSERM, the French Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, and his colleagues. The fissure helps the mind to conjure spatial images.
It was also unusually shallow and short in the 14 women that Molko's team scanned with functional magnetic resonance imaging. The women had a genetic condition called Turner's syndrome, which is linked with dyscalculia.
The finding supports the idea that dyscalculics have difficulty conceiving arrangements of numbers, such as a line stretching from one to 100. "It goes very well with what has been found before," says neuropsychologist Monica Rosselli of Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton.................
www.dyscalculiaforum.com/readarticle.php?article_id=21
