Parental socioeconomic status and the neural basis of arithmetic: differential relations to verbal and visuo-spatial representations

Özlem Ece Demir; Jérôme Prado; James R Booth

doi:10.1111/desc.12268

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Parental socioeconomic status and the neural basis of arithmetic: differential relations to verbal and visuo-spatial representations

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Parental socioeconomic status and the neural basis of arithmetic: differential relations to verbal and visuo-spatial representations

Özlem Ece Demir, Jérôme Prado and James R Booth

Developmental science, Vol.18(5), pp.799-814

09/2015

DOI: 10.1111/desc.12268

PMCID: PMC4522207

PMID: 25664675

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Abstract

We examined the relation of parental socioeconomic status (SES) to the neural bases of subtraction in school-age children (9- to 12-year-olds). We independently localized brain regions subserving verbal versus visuo-spatial representations to determine whether the parental SES-related differences in children's reliance on these neural representations vary as a function of math skill. At higher SES levels, higher skill was associated with greater recruitment of the left temporal cortex, identified by the verbal localizer. At lower SES levels, higher skill was associated with greater recruitment of right parietal cortex, identified by the visuo-spatial localizer. This suggests that depending on parental SES, children engage different neural systems to solve subtraction problems. Furthermore, SES was related to the activation in the left temporal and frontal cortex during the independent verbal localizer task, but it was not related to activation during the independent visuo-spatial localizer task. Differences in activation during the verbal localizer task in turn were related to differences in activation during the subtraction task in right parietal cortex. The relation was stronger at lower SES levels. This result suggests that SES-related differences in the visuo-spatial regions during subtraction might be based in SES-related verbal differences.

Verbal Behavior - physiology

Humans

Male

Reaction Time

Mathematics

Brain - physiology

Oxygen - blood

Social Class

Space Perception - physiology

Brain - blood supply

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Image Processing, Computer-Assisted

Parents - psychology

Brain Mapping

Female

Photic Stimulation

Child

Details

Title: Subtitle: Parental socioeconomic status and the neural basis of arithmetic: differential relations to verbal and visuo-spatial representations
Creators: Özlem Ece Demir - Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, USA
Jérôme Prado - Laboratoire Langage, Cerveau et Cognition, Centre National de la Recherche Scienctifique (CNRS) and Université de Lyon, France
James R Booth - Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Texas-Austin, USA
Resource Type: Journal article
Publication Details: Developmental science, Vol.18(5), pp.799-814
DOI: 10.1111/desc.12268
PMID: 25664675
PMCID: PMC4522207
NLM abbreviation: Dev Sci
ISSN: 1363-755X
eISSN: 1467-7687
Publisher: England
Grant note: HD059177 / NICHD NIH HHS R01 HD059177 / NICHD NIH HHS
Language: English
Date published: 09/2015
Academic Unit: Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Center for Social Science Innovation
Record Identifier: 9984002454302771

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