國小學童數學成就之神經生物標記

Abstract

這是一年期計畫的進度報告。此計畫原先預計以縱貫性研究探討個體數學能力發展之行為與神經機制，並找出預測未來成就之腦造影指標，然而本計畫僅核定通過一年，因此更改為以橫斷性研究探討大腦進行四則運算的活化情形以及發展曲線，比較兒童及成人之行為與大腦活化情形。這一年共完成刺激材料收集與測試、成人與兒童之四則運算行為實驗 、以及成人與兒童腦造影實驗。行為實驗結果四則運算中，減法和除法相較於加法與乘法更困難，其中加法和乘法行為表現雖然相同，但使用的策略卻並不相同，兒童的減法錯誤率、提取率均比起其他運算更高、反應時間更長。磁振造影實驗則發現，四則運算中，成人比起兒童活化更多包含前額葉與後頂葉區域，且減法特別明顯。這些研究顯示四則運算在大腦上發展的時間點並不相同，顯示每種運算有其獨特的發展時間。目前計畫主持人也仍在以縱貫性研究探討每一個體行為與神經機制發展的個別差異。

This is the progress report of a one-year grant project. The aim of the project is to investigate how the brain solves addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, the four basic arithmetic operation problems and how the brain functions develop with learning arithmetic skills by using a cross-sectional design to compare school-age children with adults. In the past year, we have completed stimuli collection, extensively piloted the behavioral experimental paradigm, and completed one behavioral experiment to assess adults’ and children’s behavioral performance of the four basic arithmetic operations and strategy assessment. We have also conducted an fMRI study to investigate children and adults brain activation profile. The behavioral results showed that children solved subtraction and division problems much less efficient than adults. Brain activation results suggested that adults engaged stronger activation than children during solving subtraction than the other three operations in the fronto-parietal circuits. Together these results have suggested that the four arithmetic operations develops distinctly across different developmental stage. Our results showed an operation-specific brain development from childhood into adulthood when solving simple arithmetic problems. Further research is needed to investigate the individual difference of each developing children using longitudinal design.