BACKGROUND Arithmetic processing in adults is known to rely on a frontal-parietal network. However, neurocognitive research focusing on the neural and behavioral correlates of arithmetic development has been scarce, even though the acquisition of arithmetic skills is accompanied by changes within the fronto-parietal network of the developing brain. Furthermore, experimental procedures are typically adjusted to constraints of functional magnetic resonance imaging, which may not reflect natural settings in which children and adolescents actually perform arithmetic. Therefore, we investigated the longitudinal neurocognitive development of processes involved in performing the four basic arithmetic operations in 19 adolescents. By using functional near-infrared spectroscopy, we were able to use an ecologically valid task, i.e., a written production paradigm. RESULTS A common pattern of activation in the bilateral fronto-parietal network for arithmetic processing was found for all basic arithmetic operations. Moreover, evidence was obtained for decreasing activation during subtraction over the course of 1 year in middle and inferior frontal gyri, and increased activation during addition and multiplication in angular and middle temporal gyri. In the self-paced block design, parietal activation in multiplication and left angular and temporal activation in addition were observed to be higher for simple than for complex blocks, reflecting an inverse effect of arithmetic complexity. CONCLUSIONS In general, the findings suggest that the brain network for arithmetic processing is already established in 12-14 year-old adolescents, but still undergoes developmental changes.

中文翻译：

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青少年心算的神经相关性：一项纵向 fNIRS 研究。

背景技术已知成人的算术处理依赖于额叶-顶叶网络。然而，尽管算术技能的获得伴随着大脑发育中额顶叶网络的变化，但关注算术发展的神经和行为相关性的神经认知研究却很少。此外，实验程序通常会根据功能磁共振成像的限制进行调整，这可能无法反映儿童和青少年实际进行算术的自然环境。因此，我们研究了 19 名青少年执行四种基本算术运算所涉及的过程的纵向神经认知发展。通过使用功能性近红外光谱，我们能够使用生态上有效的任务，即书面生产范例。结果 对于所有基本算术运算，发现了用于算术处理的双侧额顶叶网络中的常见激活模式。此外，获得的证据表明，在一年的过程中，额中回和下额回在减法过程中的激活减少，而角回和颞中回在加法和乘法过程中的激活增加。在自定进度块设计中，观察到简单块的乘法以及左角和时间激活中的顶叶激活高于复杂块，反映了算术复杂性的逆效应。结论 总的来说，研究结果表明，12-14 岁青少年的算术处理大脑网络已经建立，但仍在经历发育变化。