Department of Psychology, Centre for Neuroscience in Education, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
Cortex. 2013 Nov-Dec;49(10):2674-88. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2013.06.007. Epub 2013 Jun 28.
Developmental dyscalculia is thought to be a specific impairment of mathematics ability. Currently dominant cognitive neuroscience theories of developmental dyscalculia suggest that it originates from the impairment of the magnitude representation of the human brain, residing in the intraparietal sulcus, or from impaired connections between number symbols and the magnitude representation. However, behavioral research offers several alternative theories for developmental dyscalculia and neuro-imaging also suggests that impairments in developmental dyscalculia may be linked to disruptions of other functions of the intraparietal sulcus than the magnitude representation. Strikingly, the magnitude representation theory has never been explicitly contrasted with a range of alternatives in a systematic fashion. Here we have filled this gap by directly contrasting five alternative theories (magnitude representation, working memory, inhibition, attention and spatial processing) of developmental dyscalculia in 9-10-year-old primary school children. Participants were selected from a pool of 1004 children and took part in 16 tests and nine experiments. The dominant features of developmental dyscalculia are visuo-spatial working memory, visuo-spatial short-term memory and inhibitory function (interference suppression) impairment. We hypothesize that inhibition impairment is related to the disruption of central executive memory function. Potential problems of visuo-spatial processing and attentional function in developmental dyscalculia probably depend on short-term memory/working memory and inhibition impairments. The magnitude representation theory of developmental dyscalculia was not supported.
发展性计算障碍被认为是一种特定的数学能力障碍。目前，发展性计算障碍的主流认知神经科学理论认为，它源于大脑数量表示的损伤，位于顶内沟，或者源于数字符号与数量表示之间的连接受损。然而，行为研究为发展性计算障碍提供了几种替代理论，神经影像学也表明，发展性计算障碍的损伤可能与顶内沟的其他功能障碍有关，而不仅仅是数量表示。引人注目的是，数量表示理论从未以系统的方式与一系列替代理论明确对比过。在这里，我们通过在 9-10 岁的小学生中直接对比发展性计算障碍的五个替代理论（数量表示、工作记忆、抑制、注意和空间处理），填补了这一空白。参与者是从 1004 名儿童中挑选出来的，他们参加了 16 项测试和 9 项实验。发展性计算障碍的主要特征是视空间工作记忆、视空间短期记忆和抑制功能（干扰抑制）损伤。我们假设抑制功能损伤与中央执行记忆功能的破坏有关。发展性计算障碍中视空间处理和注意力功能的潜在问题可能取决于短期记忆/工作记忆和抑制功能损伤。发展性计算障碍的数量表示理论没有得到支持。
