Parietal functional connectivity in numerical cognition.

The parietal cortex is central to numerical cognition. The right parietal region is primarily involved in basic quantity processing, while the left parietal region is additionally involved in precise number processing and numerical operations. Little is known about how the 2 regions interact during numerical cognition. We hypothesized that functional connectivity between the right and left parietal cortex is critical for numerical processing that engages both basic number representation and learned numerical operations. To test this hypothesis, we estimated neural activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging in participants performing numerical and arithmetic processing on dot arrays. We first found task-based functional connectivity between a right parietal seed and the left sensorimotor cortex in all task conditions. As we hypothesized, we found enhanced functional connectivity between this right parietal seed and both the left parietal cortex and neighboring right parietal cortex, particularly during subtraction. The degree of functional connectivity also correlated with behavioral performance across individual participants, while activity within each region did not. These results highlight the role of parietal functional connectivity in numerical processing. They suggest that arithmetic processing depends on crosstalk between and within the parietal cortex and that this crosstalk contributes to one's numerical competence.