Interaction Between Abacus Training,math Ability And Brain Mechanism In Children:studies Of Functional Connectivity

Connectivity as an important concept in neuroscience,has been combined with graph theory for further understanding of the system aspect of brain.Abacus mental calculation(AMC)has been reported to utilize visuospatial representation for numerical information processing,show prominent effect on improving children's arithmetic and math ability and induce structural and functional plasticity of brain.However,the alteration of connectivity pattern,especially the brain network plasticity induced by AMC has been scarcely explored.Besides,study of individual difference might be important for improving the effect of AMC training.Previous studies have reported the important role of hippocampus in the performance gain from training in children.However,it is still unclear about the brain mechanism underlying the individual difference of math ability in children with AMC training.Thus,the current study aimed to explore the interaction between the AMC training,math ability and brain in children based on functional connectivity.The study would investigate the hippocampal regions first,then explore the network of hippocampal-arithmetic network,then the whole-brain functional network and finally the whole-brain dynamic network to provide multi-level and multi-angle insights.In the first study we analyzed the structural and resting-state functional data of a group of children with one-year AMC training and a group of matched controls,and computed the learning rate of math ability of the following three to five years to test the relationship between the anatomy and functional circuits of hippocampus in children's math learning.We found that the anatomy and functional circuits of bilateral hippocampal regions predicted the learning rate of math ability in children with AMC training.The study revealed the important role of hippocampus in development of math ability in children with AMC training,reflecting the interaction between AMC training,brain regions and development of math ability in children.In the second study we utilized the resting-state functional data of the first study to explore the hippocampal-arithmetic network composed of totally 30 hippocampal-and arithmetic-related brain regions.By comparing the difference of the topological parameters between the two groups,we found more segregated network structure in AMC group.The intra-module connectivity was strengthened in each module and the right-lateral brain regions play an important role in inter-module interaction.The current results reflected that AMC training might influence the network segregation and information integration in this network.The third study explored the impact of AMC training on the brain modular organization with 162 children.We found that the local-efficiency and the intra-module connectivity of visual module were higher in AMC group,while the parameters of cingulo-opercular network(CON)were lower.Besides,the parameters of visual module were negatively correlated with those of CON module,respectively.The parameters of CON also showed negative correlation with math ability in the AMC group.The result reflected the enhancement of visuospatial-related mechanism in AMC individuals.The fourth study utilized a longitudinal dataset to test the influence of AMC training on the development of dynamic network of children.We found that the AMC group and the control group exhibited the same tendency of the general development of dynamic network,but differed from each other in the development of the visual module,the cingulate-opercular network(CON),the default mode network(DMN)and the ventral attention network(VAN)in some period.The current results reflected that AMC training might help the development of visuospatial-related mechanism and high-level cognitive functional system in children's dynamic network.Our study might be the first study to reveal the predictive role of hippocampus on the development of math ability in children with AMC training,to explore the influence of AMC training on the hippocampus-arithmetic network,to explore the influence of AMC training on the whole-brain network structure with a large dataset,and to investigate the influence of AMC training on the development of children's dynamic network.These four studies investigated from region to system and from behavioral to brain,uncovered the interaction between AMC training,math ability and brain mechanism in children with a dynamic perspective,and would provide reference for further study about the AMC training in children.