Defining the neural basis of mathematical abilities: insights using fNIRS

Scientific research is currently focusing on the structures of the brain achieving various levels of mathematical performance. This work presents both a literature review of what past research has achieved to the present day, and a report of recent experimental observations. The importance of this format comes from a lack of comprehensive reviews on mathematical expertise. The review of the literature includes scientific studies on the cognitive aspects of number processing according to the triple code model (Dehaene, 1992), and on the anatomical characterization of the “math network”, involving a set of structures within frontoparietal areas (Dehaene et al., 2003). Within this context, factors regarding the definition of mathematical expertise, the adopted experimental designs, and functional characterization of associated brain structures will be explored. In the second part of this work, experimental observations from a recent study on mathematical cognition will be discussed. In this study, functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) has been adopted to investigate brain-behavior correlations between the performance on arithmetical calculation and cortical activity elicited during a numerical comparison task. This type of study brings substantial contribution to the building of the literature and paves the path for future detailed analysis of the subject matter.