As children make the transition from finger counting to retrieving math facts from memory, their brains begin to change, says a study published last week in Nature Neuroscience. The findings could offer clues about how such processes break down for students with math learning disabilities.
The study, out of the Stanford University School of Medicine, used brain-imaging to show that the hippocampus becomes more active, and more strongly connected to other parts of the brain, as children move to memory-based problem-solving. Fluent math-fact retrieval is a predictor of later mathematics achievement, the Stanford Medicine News Center notes.
