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Crossroads In The Learning Brain: The Neural Overlap Between Arithmetic And Phonological Processing.

Home
Crossroads In The Learning Brain: The Neural Overlap Between Arithmetic And Phonological Processing.

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Crossroads in the Learning Brain: The Neural Overlap Between Arithmetic and Phonological Processing.

Aymee Alvarez-Rivero¹, Lien Peters², Marc F Joanisse¹

¹The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

Human Brain Mapping

|January 13, 2026

View abstract on PubMed

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study reveals overlapping brain areas for reading and math skills in adults and children. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) showed shared neural regions, suggesting a link between language and arithmetic processing.

Keywords:

arithmetic conjunction analysis fMRI phonological processing representational similarity analysis

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Neuroimaging
Developmental Neuroscience

Background:

Behavioral studies link reading and math performance.
Neuroimaging suggests shared brain regions between arithmetic fact retrieval and phonological processing.
Neural correlates of reading and math have been studied in isolation, leaving overlap unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if reading and arithmetic abilities recruit functionally overlapping brain areas.
To examine neural overlap using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
To assess brain-level associations between arithmetic and word reading using univariate overlap and pattern similarity analyses.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to measure brain activity.

Participants completed an arithmetic task and a word rhyming task.

Univariate overlap and pattern similarity analyses were employed to assess neural associations.

Main Results:

Significant overlap in brain regions, including the left inferior frontal gyrus, left inferior temporal gyrus, and right posterior cerebellum, was found in adults.
Multiple clusters along the left frontal gyrus showed overlap in children.
Pattern similarity analysis revealed significant overlap between phonological processing and arithmetic, with higher similarity for larger arithmetic problems.

Conclusions:

This study provides direct, within-participant evidence of neural overlap between arithmetic and word reading processes.
Findings contribute to understanding the brain regions supporting both reading and math.
The unexpected finding of greater similarity between phonological processing and large arithmetic problems warrants further investigation into arithmetic strategies.