Ravizza Susan M, Anderson John R, Carter Cameron S
Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA.
Brain Res. 2008 Oct 31;1238:118-26. doi: 10.1016/j.brainres.2008.08.030. Epub 2008 Aug 23.
Regions in the prefrontal and parietal cortices contribute to mathematical problem-solving through their roles in retrieval and mental representation, respectively. This fMRI study examined whether activity in these regions tracked with subsequent errors in solving algebraic equations. Whereas previous studies have used recognition paradigms (e.g., decide whether 2+2=5 is correct) to assess the relationship of neural functioning with performance, participants in this study were required to generate an answer themselves. For the prefrontal region that in previous studies has exhibited activity modulated by retrieval demands, we found that activity was greater when equations were solved correctly than when errors were committed. Good solvers also tended to exhibit more activity in this region than poor problem-solvers. This was not true for the region in the parietal cortex that has been associated with representing the number of transformations to the equation. This suggests that, in our adult sample, successful performance was related to retrieval abilities rather than to difficulty in representing or updating changes in the equation as it is being solved.
前额叶皮质和顶叶皮质区域分别通过其在检索和心理表征中的作用，对数学问题解决有所贡献。这项功能磁共振成像研究考察了这些区域的活动是否与后续解代数方程时的错误相关。以往的研究使用识别范式（例如，判断2+2=5是否正确）来评估神经功能与表现之间的关系，而本研究的参与者需要自己给出答案。对于先前研究中显示活动受检索需求调节的前额叶区域，我们发现，正确解方程时的活动比犯错时更强烈。优秀的解题者在该区域的活动也往往比差的解题者更多。对于与表征方程变换次数相关的顶叶皮质区域，情况并非如此。这表明，在我们的成人样本中，成功的表现与检索能力有关，而与在解方程过程中表征或更新方程变化的难度无关。
