Solving logical-mathematical word problems is a complex task that requires numerous cognitive operations, including comprehension, reasoning, and calculation. These abilities have been associated with activation of the parietal, temporal, and prefrontal cortices. It has been suggested that the reasoning involved in solving logical-mathematical problems requires the coordinated functionality of all these cortical areas. In this study was evaluated the activation and electroencephalographic (EEG) correlation of the prefrontal, temporal, and parietal regions in young men while solving logical-mathematical word problems with two degrees of difficulty: simple and complex. During the solving of complex problems, higher absolute power and EEG correlation of the alpha and fast bands between the left frontal and parietal cortices were observed. A temporal deactivation and functional decoupling of the right parietaltemporal cortices also were obtained. Solving complex problems probably require activation of a left prefrontal-parietal circuit to maintain and manipulate multiple pieces of information. The temporal deactivation and decreased parietal-temporal correlation could be associated to text processing and suppression of the content-dependent reasoning to focus cognitive resources on the mathematical reasoning. Together, these findings support a pivotal role for the left prefrontal and parietal cortices in mathematical reasoning and of the temporal regions in text processing required to understand and solve written mathematical problems.

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There is evidence that research on sleep among New World monkeys may provide important knowledge related to the evolution of sleep more broadly in the primate order. Digital electroencephalographic (EEG) analyses provide essential knowledge on sleep in the spider monkey. Recently, specific EEG bands related to sleep in these animals have been obtained using principal component analysis, but the exact spatio-temporal distribution of these EEG bands in this species has not yet been analyzed. This study determined the topographic distribution of the EEG spectral power of ad hoc broad bands during rapid eye movement sleep, nonrapid eye movement sleep, and wakefulness. Superficial EEG activity was obtained from the occipital, frontal, and central areas of six young adult male monkeys housed in a laboratory. During wakefulness, occipital areas showed high absolute power in the 1-3, 3-12, and 11-30 Hz ranges, while during nonrapid eye movement 1 sleep the highest absolute power was in the 13-30 Hz range. During nonrapid eye movement 3 sleep, frontal and central areas showed a high absolute power in the 18-19 Hz range. Finally, the right central area showed a high absolute power in the 20-30 Hz range during rapid eye movement sleep. This topographic distribution of EEG bands could represent the brain organization required for arousal and mnemonic processing during sleep in the spider monkey.

La comprensión lectora (CL) es una de las competencias conductuales más importantes para el hombre moderno. Aquellos que no leen o leen sin comprender se encuentran imposibilitados para aprovechar los conocimientos que, en sentido figurado, están disponibles en los textos. Esta circunstancia es común a una gran cantidad de estudiantes de educación básica en México, agudizándose en aquellos que viven en zonas no urbanas. En ese sentido se realizó un estudio con el propósito de evaluar el nivel de CL de estudiantes de 4to y 5to grado de educación primaria de dos municipios del estado de Jalisco, debido a que no hay datos específicos al respecto. Participaron 112 estudiantes de 4to y 5to grado de primaria, de 56 participantes cada uno, quienes fueron evaluados en cuanto a su CL con la prueba ECOMPLEC (León, Escudero y Olmos, 2012). Los resultados mostraron que no hubo diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre la CL de los estudiantes de 4to y 5to grado (prueba t con una p > 0,05), pese a que estos últimos tuvieron mejores resultados. También se encontró que en ambos grupos de estudiantes la mayoría tenía una CL que iba de muy baja a media. Se discute la necesidad de realizar programas de intervención que mejoren la calidad de la educación de estudiantes en zonas marginales.

propiedades psiCoMétriCas del test de Habilidades para la Vida... MarCo santana CaMpas, Claudia raMos santana y otras