Wired for math
The same neural circuits that adults use to perform complex calculations are already at work in preschoolers doing basic math, a new study finds. This result suggests that the brain is set up to process numbers early in life.
How the brain graduates from simple counting to more-advanced mathematics, which uses symbols and requires reasoning, isn’t clear, says Jessica Cantlon of Duke University in Durham, N.C. One important question has been whether the same region of the brain, called the intraparietal sulcus (IPS), that’s active when adults do sophisticated sums also controls basic math skills.