Briefly describe the hypothesis being tested in the study.
Interested in testing whether the cortical motor system is involved with how numbers are represented. Also, test whether finger counting influences the organization of numerical knowledge.
100
Describe the participants in this study including handedness, gender, number, and native language.
There are 29 participants (15f & 14m), native language is English (monolingual), right-handed individuals.
100
What impact did the SNARC effect show on the spatial numerical association?
It is unlikely that spatial numerical association effects confounded the imaging data. The present data did not show significant differences in strength and direction of the SNARC effect.
100
What factor influenced laterality in cortical activation?
Laterality of cortical activation depended on the participant’s finger counting habits, whether they started counting with their left or right hands.
100
Did eye movements influence the results of the current study? What evidence suports your answer.
No, eye movements do not account for the results. Eye movements have been shown to illicit activation in precentral areas but in regions different from those in this study. Also, the lateralized activation patterns in line with participants finger counting are hard are not attributable to eye movements alone.
200
What is the term for sensory-motor processes? (The process by which motor actions influence thinking).
What is embodied cognition.
200
Why did they select for right-handed participants with hand preference when counting rather than participants with no hand preference?
The researchers wanted to test the laterization of neural activation in right and left starters.
200
What brain regions are primarily involved in word number recognition?
Bilateral activation in the parietal cortex and frontal region.
200
How brain activation is shifted bases on the number size and hand used to count?
The group of right-starters revealed left-hemispheric activation for small numbers and the group of left starters showed right hemispheric activation.
200
Describe the "neuronal recycling hypothesis." (Dehaene and Cohen, 2007)
A shared neural network for numerical processing and performing arithmetic tasks results from invasion of evolutionarily older brain circuits by more recent cultural inventions like number systems.
300
Brainstorm an idiomatic expression involving body movement that conveys a motoric meaning of words, such as “grasping an idea.”
“Over my head.” This shows that embodied semantics helps to understand abstract meaning.
300
Why was foot responses chosen as a measurable motor response?
Foot responses did not interfere with hand/finger cortical activation signals.
300
What brain regions are activated for both number words and digits?
Left inferior temporal cortex
Left medial temporal cortex
Right superior temporal cortex
300
In what regions do finger movements and simply arithmetic show anatomical overlap in neuronal activation?
There may be a shared neural network for number processing and planning of finger movements in parietal cortical areas, precentral gyrus and primary motor cortex. When a number is perceived it may trigger a tendency to move associated fingers. The planning and control of finger movement is driven by parietal areas which activates the precentral gyrus and primary motor areas to complete finger movements.
300
What forms of evidence can be gathered from motor action potentials?
When healthy patients are asked to do judgment task of number 1-9, there is increase activation in right hand muscles for numbers 1 to 4 in right handed individuals. These findings show that there are shared neural networks for numbers and finger movements that are strengthened by finger-counting habits.
400
(T or F) The spatial-numerical association of response codes or SNARC effect, shows that right-hand starters had a robust SNARC, disproving that finger counting is influenced by number and space.
False. The Dehaene et. al. study shows robust SNARC effect for left-starters because numbers are typically increasing on a number line from left to right. This indicates that there is an association between finger counting habits for left-starters and numbers in space.
400
Describe the task used in this study.
10 Arabic digits (0-9) and words (zero to nine) were shown in two separate blocks. Repeated 21x in each block for a total of 210 trials. The participants pushed a foot pedal when they recognized the Arabic letters.
A finger localizer task was used to identify the neural signal correlating with the activation of specific fingers (finger localizer).
They were asked to use their fingers to count up to the numbers presented on the screen (counting localizer).
400
What does the activation of the motor cortical regions suggest about the finger and number correlation? Use the information about difference in lateralization for the left vs right starters.
Significant right hemisphere activation for left-starters. Lateralization effects are in line with finger counting habits in primary motor cortical areas for the group of left-starters. No overlap was found in the group of right-starters.
400
Name the specific brain regions activated in right-starters and left-starters.
Left -lateral premotor cortical regions in right-starters and right-lateral premotor cortical regions in group of left starters.
400
If an investigator wanted to further study the time processing involved with motor cortex activation and number processing what technique (machine) can he/she use?
EEG or MEG would show the time processing involved with motor cortex activation and number processing because both have high temporal resolution.
500
Describe one of two studies with children that shows the influence of fingers for learning arithmetic.
1. Hand gestures enhance math skills in children. When children are directed to keep their hands still this hinders their ability to retain the information learned. With hand gestures they can express implicit ideas and this helps children to retrieve information for future learning.
2. Finger gnosis is a predictor for math skills in 5-6 year old children.
500
What three questions are investigated from data analysis with SPM5?
Is motor cortex activated by numbers?
Is motor cortex activation laterlised according to groups for small numbers in line with participants counting habits?
Does this lateralization depend on numerical magnitude?
500
How were brain region activation arranged in respect to the starting hand for numbers 1-5?
There were confirmed activation contralateral to the starting hand in each counting group for the contrast digits. Left starters showed right hemispheric activation and right starters showed left hemispheric activation. However, no such contralateral activation was shown for digits 6-9.
500
Use the “Hebbian learning” approach to describe how finger movements and arithmetic are associated in development.
States that since children use their fingers during counting and while solving simple counting problems, neuronal circuits due to early co-occurrence of neuronal activity for numbers and number words with finger movements may exist later in life.
500
How is the premotor region described in other studies as being activated during arithmetic tasks?
1. Kansaku- upper part of left ventral premotor cortex is specifically activated during counting large stimulus sequences
2. Hanakawa - anterior and dorsal part of the lateral premotpr cortex significantly activated more for mental operations than for verbal rehearsal
3. Zago- compared simple multiplication task to complex multiplication and found that the left premotor cortex was activated for both tasks