Number words recruit numerosity-related cortex in 3- to 5-year-old children

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Developmental Psychology
• Cognitive Science

Background:

• Mapping number words to their meanings is crucial for mathematical development.
• Previous studies in adults show the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) processes both symbolic number words and non-symbolic numerosity.
• It remains unclear when this neural overlap emerges during childhood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the developmental emergence of neural overlap between number word and numerosity processing.
• To examine if early neural synchrony in number processing predicts later mathematical ability in children.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to compare brain responses in children aged 3-5 years.
• Participants completed an auditory task involving number word sequences and a visual task involving numerosity.
• Whole-brain analyses were conducted to identify overlapping neural substrates.

Main Results:

• The bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS) showed involvement in processing number word sequences in young children.
• Neural synchrony between children and adults during the number word task correlated significantly with children's formal math ability.
• Significant overlap was found between the neural processing of auditory number words and visual numerosity.

Conclusions:

• The bilateral IPS is involved in processing number words even in very young children.
• Early development shows overlapping neural substrates for verbal, symbolic number, and non-verbal, non-symbolic numerosity.
• Child-to-adult neural synchrony in number processing may serve as an early indicator of mathematical aptitude.