Chen Feiyan, Hu Zhenghui, Zhao Xiaohu, Wang Rui, Yang Zhenyan, Wang Xiaolu, Tang Xiaowei
Bio-X Laboratory, Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Neurosci Lett. 2006 Jul 31;403(1-2):46-51. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2006.04.041. Epub 2006 May 12.
Abacus experts have demonstrated extraordinary potential of mental calculation by using an imaginary abacus. But the neural correlates of abacus mental calculation and the imaginary abacus still remain unclear. Here, we report, respectively, the analysis of fMRI images of abacus experts and non-experts in response to the performance of simple and complex serial calculation by visual stimuli as well as the images of the abacus experts with performance of the same tasks by auditory stimuli. We found that activated areas were quite different between two groups. In experts, enhanced activations were mainly observed in fronto-temporal circuit (lateral premotor cortex (LPMC) and posterior temporal areas) in simple addition, but in fronto-parietal circuit (lateral premotor cortex (LPMC) and posterior superior parietal lobe (PSPL)) in complex one. By contrast, in controls, the activated areas were almost similar in both simple and complex tasks, including bilateral inferior parietal lobule, prefrontal and premotor cortices. Furthermore, visual and auditory stimuli generated almost similar activations in experts. These observations reveal that (1) abacus mental calculation induces special patterns of brain response, and simple and complex tasks are sustained by dissociated brain circuits between the temporal and parietal cortices, respectively; (2) the abacus mental calculation may rely on neural resources of visuospatial representations with a super-modal form of abacus beads; (3) the posterior temporal areas and PSPL may be recruited for imaginary abacus.
算盘专家通过使用想象中的算盘展示了非凡的心算潜力。但算盘心算以及想象中的算盘的神经关联仍不清楚。在此，我们分别报告了算盘专家和非专家在面对视觉刺激进行简单和复杂串行计算时的功能磁共振成像（fMRI）图像分析，以及算盘专家在面对听觉刺激执行相同任务时的图像分析。我们发现两组之间的激活区域有很大不同。在专家组中，简单加法时增强的激活主要出现在额颞回路（外侧运动前皮层（LPMC）和颞后区域），但复杂加法时出现在额顶回路（外侧运动前皮层（LPMC）和顶叶后上回（PSPL））。相比之下，在对照组中，简单和复杂任务的激活区域几乎相似，包括双侧顶下小叶、前额叶和运动前皮层。此外，视觉和听觉刺激在专家组中产生的激活几乎相似。这些观察结果表明：（1）算盘心算会引发特殊的大脑反应模式，简单和复杂任务分别由颞叶和顶叶皮层之间不同的脑回路维持；（2）算盘心算可能依赖于具有算盘珠子超模态形式的视觉空间表征的神经资源；（3）颞后区域和PSPL可能参与想象中的算盘运算。
