Behavioural and neuroimaging studies have recently demonstrated that symbolic numerical order processing (i.e., deciding whether numbers are in an increasing/decreasing sequence or not) may engages different cognitive mechanisms and brain regions compared to symbolic numerical magnitude processing (e.g., deciding which of two numerals is larger). Because of this behavioural dissociation, growing interest has emerged to better understand the neurocognitive mechanisms of symbolic numerical order processing and their relationship to individual differences in arithmetic performance. In the present functional imaging work, we further investigated this link in a group of thirty children (7.2-10.25 years) from elementary school, who completed a symbolic numerical order verification (are the numbers going up? e.g., 1-2-3), a symbolic numerical magnitude comparison task (which is the larger number? e.g., 5-7), as well as an arithmetic fluency test outside the scanner. Behavioural results demonstrated the unique role of numerical order to predict children's arithmetic skills and confirmed its mediating power to explain the association between numerical magnitude and arithmetic performance. Imaging results showed a significant association between numerical order and arithmetic in the intersection of the right inferior frontal gyrus and insula, as well as the posterior middle temporal gyrus. An age-dependent change in brain activity was found in the left intraparietal sulcus. These findings solidify the developmental importance of symbolic numerical order processing in children and provides new evidence that the semantic control network mediates the relationship with arithmetic performance.

中文翻译：

---

语义控制网络介导了符号数字顺序处理与儿童算术性能之间的关系。

行为和神经影像学研究最近表明，与符号数值幅度处理（例如，确定两个数字中的哪个）相比，符号数值顺序处理（即，确定数字是否以递增/递减的顺序进行）可能会涉及不同的认知机制和大脑区域。更大）。由于这种行为上的分离，人们越来越有兴趣更好地理解符号数值顺序处理的神经认知机制及其与算术性能个体差异的关系。在当前的功能成像工作中，我们进一步研究了一组来自小学的30名儿童（7.2-10.25岁）的这一联系，他们完成了符号数字顺序验证（数字在增加吗？例如1-2-3） ，符号数值幅度比较任务（较大的数字，例如5-7），以及扫描仪外部的算术流利度测试。行为结果证明了数字顺序在预测儿童算术技能中的独特作用，并证实了其在解释数字量级与算术成绩之间关系方面的中介作用。影像学结果显示右下额回与孤立岛以及后颞中回之间的数字顺序与算术之间存在显着关联。在左顶壁沟中发现了大脑活动的年龄依赖性变化。