Mnemonic - Articles
Calculating prodigies are individuals who are exceptional at quickly and accurately solving complex mental calculations. With positron emission tomography (PET), we investigated the neural bases of the cognitive abilitiesof an expert calculator and a group of non-experts, contrasting complex mental calculation to memory retrieval of arithmetic facts. We demonstrated that calculation expertise was not due to increased activity of processesthat exist in non-experts; rather, the expert and the non-experts used different brain areasfor calculation. We found that the expert could switch between short-term effort-requiring storage strategies and highly efficient episodic memory encoding and retrieval, a process that was sustained by right prefrontal and medial tern poral areas.
Much psychological research has been devoted to studying the modifications of cognitive processes resulting from domain-specific expertise1-2. To date, the investigation of extensive learning-related cerebral changes has largely focused on motor3-4 or visuo-perceptive skill acquisition5, rather than higher-level cognition. Mental calculation, which requires the coordination of various basic and complex cognitive processes, is a good example of high-level cognitive skill for which some individuals, called calculating prodigies6, reach a high level of expertise. Current models of arithmetical cognition assume that adults solve simple arithmetic problems (such as 3 x 6) without actual computation, by retrieving the answer from a network of stored declarative associations7-8. In contrast, more complex problems (such as 37 x 62) are not stored in memory but require application of actual computational procedures.
From a functional point of view, solving computation-based problems is a complex cognitive skill requiring numbers to be held and manipulated on a short-term representational medium while the dedicated resolution algorithm is applied. Applying the algorithm involves sequential control of the various steps, decomposition of the stimuli according to their semantic meaning (for example, whether digits correspond to units or tens), memory retrieval of intermediate results, short-term storage of those results, and application of basic arithmetical rules. Intermediate results must be kept in mind until used, but then must be forgotten to keep the memory load at a minimum. The whole process thus involves various working memory mechanisms, such as updating, in charge of the central executive, and the attentional control system, responsible for strategy selection and for control and coordination of the mechanisms involved in short-term storage and processing tasks9.
| Table 1. Examples of calculations done by R. Gamm. | |||
| Types of problems | Examles | R. Gamm's answer | Correct answer |
| Raising numbers to powers | 995 539 | 9,509,900,499 3,299,763,591,802,133 | (correct) (correct) |
| Roots | 2V(973487) 5V(854799037) | 984 96 | 986.65* 96.61* |
| Sines | sin 287 | -0.956304756 | (correct) |
| Division of prime numbers | 31/61 | (answer with 60 decimals) | (all correct) |
| *answers rounded off | |||
RESULTS
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Fig. 1. Example of the two kinds of mental calculation tasks done during PET, and the type of resolution used by R. Gamm. Bottom, dedicated algorithm used by R. Gamm to solve complex mental calculation problems.
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Table 2. Brain areas activated during calculation (as compared to memory retrieval) either in both the calculating prodigy and non-expert calculators, or only in the calculating prodigy.
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Fig. 2. Brain areas activated during complex mental calculation either by both R. Gamm and the group of six nonexpert calculators (green) or specifically by R. Gamm (red). Left, top view of the brain template with stereotactic frame of reference (ACV, anterior commissure verticalization). Right, selected coronal slices showing anterior cingulate, right medial frontal, basal ganglia and right medial temporal specific activations during complex mental calculation in R. Gamm. For each region, the histogram shows the average (across three trials) normalized rCBF variations in each individual (red, R. Gamm; green, nonexpert calculator) expressed as f-values. The dotted line indicates the f-value threshold for activation significance at 0.05 (corrected for multiple comparisons). From top to bottom, the areas are the right anterior cingulate gyrus, the right medial frontal gyrus, the right parahippocampal gyrus, the left paracentral lobule and the right occipito-temporal junction (Table 2).
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DISCUSSION
The massive involvement of the visuospatial working memory and visual imagery networks11-13 strongly suggests that, during complex calculation, numbers are held and manipulated onto a visual type of short-term representational medium. Although fewer stimuli were seen in the computation-based condition, the occipital areas were more activated, suggesting that visual imagery strategies were applied to visually perceived stimuli. This held for both the expert and the non-expert calculators. Hence, these areas likely participate in mental calculation networks shared by most educated adults when problems are presented visually. The left intraparietal sulcus and precentral gyrus were found, in previous studies, to be jointly activated when Arabic digits were compared (leading to the processing of their magnitude meaning), multiplied or added14-15.
The present results support the critical involvement of this left parietal area in number processing and calculation, most likely in the semantic aspects of magnitude processing16. The results again suggest a contribution of the precentral gyrus, possibly when some form of computation is required. The exact involvement of this network is currently under debate. We propose that the joint activation of the parietal and precentral areas may reflect the involvement of a finger movement representation network. Such a network would underlie finger counting and numerosity quantification during childhood17-18, and, by extension, would become the substrate of some numerical knowledge and processes15 in adults. Developmental19-20, cross-cultural21, neuropsychological22 and neuroimaging23 findings support this interpretation.
METHODS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
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