Finger-Based Numerical Training Increases Sensorimotor Activation for Arithmetic in Children—An fNIRS Study

Abstract

Most children use their fingers when learning to count and calculate. These sensorimotor experiences were argued to underlie reported behavioral associations of finger gnosis and counting with mathematical skills. On the neural level, associations were assumed to originate from overlapping neural representations of fingers and numbers. This study explored whether finger-based training in children would lead to specific neural activation in the sensorimotor cortex, associated with finger movements, as well as the parietal cortex, associated with number processing, during mental arithmetic. Following finger-based training during the first year of school, trained children showed finger-related arithmetic effects accompanied by activation in the sensorimotor cortex potentially associated with implicit finger movements. This indicates embodied finger-based numerical representations after training. Results for differences in neural activation between trained children and a control group in the IPS were less conclusive. This study provides the first evidence for training-induced sensorimotor plasticity in brain development potentially driven by the explicit use of fingers for initial arithmetic, supporting an embodied perspective on the representation of numbers.

How can transforming representation of mathematical entities help us employ more cognitive resources?

“…This supports the embodied representation of numbers and arithmetic operations in hands/fingers. In a recent study, Artemenko et al (2022) used a finger-based method for teaching arithmetic operations to a group of children. After 1 year of training, this group of children showed finger-related arithmetic effects accompanied by activation in the sensorimotor cortex during performing mental arithmetic operations.…”

Challenges in Understanding Numerical Learning: Editorial for Brain Sciences Special Issue “Neurocognitive Signatures of Math (Learning) across the Lifespan and Their Interrelation with Other Aspects of Cognition and Emotion”

“…Employing EEG in 3-to-4-month-old infants, Decarli et al [ 8 ] found evidence for a neuro-functional link between numerosity processing and hand action processing. With the help of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) in a mental arithmetic training in first graders, Artemenko et al [ 9 ] were able to link the effects of a finger-based training on mental arithmetic (i.e., training-induced facilitation of subbase-5 carry operations) and the activation in the sensorimotor cortex in trained children, suggesting training-induced sensorimotor plasticity in brain development. Thus, the results of both studies support an embodied perspective on the representation of numbers already in early infancy.…”