Software programming is a modern activity that poses strong challenges to the human brain. The neural mechanisms that support this novel cognitive faculty are still unknown. On the other hand, reading and calculation abilities represent slightly less recent human activities, in which neural correlates are relatively well understood. We hypothesize that calculus and reading brain networks provide joint underpinnings with distinctly weighted contributions which concern programming tasks, in particular concerning error identification. Based on a meta-analysis of the core regions involved in both reading and math and recent experimental evidence on the neural basis of programming tasks, we provide a theoretical account that integrates the role of these networks in program understanding. In this connectivity-based framework, error-monitoring processing regions in the frontal cortex influence the insula, which is a pivotal hub within the salience network, leading into efficient causal modulation of parietal networks involved in reading and mathematical operations. The core role of the anterior insula and anterior midcingulate cortex is illuminated by their relation to performance in error processing and novelty. The larger similarity that we observed between the networks underlying calculus and programming skills does not exclude a more limited but clear overlap with the reading network, albeit with differences in hemispheric lateralization when compared with prose reading. Future work should further elucidate whether other features of computer program understanding also use distinct weights of phylogenetically "older systems" for this recent human activity, based on the adjusting influence of fronto-insular networks. By unraveling the neural correlates of program understanding and bug detection, this work provides a framework to understand error monitoring in this novel complex faculty.

中文翻译：

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阅读和计算神经系统及其对编程技能的加权自适应使用。

软件编程是一项现代活动，对人脑提出了巨大挑战。支持这种新型认知能力的神经机制仍然未知。另一方面，阅读和计算能力代表了较不近期的人类活动，其中神经相关性相对较好。我们假设微积分和阅读大脑网络提供了具有明显加权贡献的联合基础，这些贡献与编程任务有关，特别是在错误识别方面。基于对涉及阅读和数学的核心区域的荟萃分析以及最近关于编程任务神经基础的实验证据，我们提供了一个理论解释，将这些网络在程序理解中的作用整合在一起。在这个基于连接的框架中，额叶皮层中的错误监控处理区域会影响脑岛，脑岛是显着网络中的关键枢纽，导致参与阅读和数学运算的顶叶网络的有效因果调制。前岛叶和前扣带回皮层的核心作用通过它们与错误处理和新奇性能的关系来阐明。我们在微积分和编程技能基础网络之间观察到的更大相似性并不排除与阅读网络的更有限但明显的重叠，尽管与散文阅读相比，半球侧化存在差异。未来的工作应该进一步阐明计算机程序理解的其他特征是否也对最近的人类活动使用系统发育“旧系统”的不同权重，基于额岛网络的调整影响。通过解开程序理解和错误检测的神经相关性，这项工作提供了一个框架来理解这个新的复杂学院中的错误监控。