Developmental Specialization in the Right Intraparietal Sulcus for the Abstract Representation of Numerical Magnitude

or the Abstract Representation of Numerical Magnitude Ian D. Holloway1,2 and Daniel Ansari1,2 use number is an abstract quality of a set, the way in which a number is externally represented does not change its quantitative meaning. In this study, we examined the development of the brain regions that support format-independent representation of numerical magnitude. We asked children and adults to perform both symbolic (Hindu-Arabic numerals) and nonsymbolic (arrays of squares) numerical comparison tasks as well as two control tasks while their brains were scanned using fMRI. In a preliminary analysis, we calculated the conjunction between symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical comparison. We then examined in which brain regions this conjunction differed between children and adults. This analysis revealed a large network of visual and parietal regions that showed greater activation in adults relative to children. In our primary analysis, we examined age-related differences in the conjunctio...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: JOCN
• Authors: Ian D. Holloway, Daniel Ansari
• Keywords: Control Tasks, Inferior Parietal Lobe, JOCN 2010, Numerical Magnitude