Kersey Alyssa J, Csumitta Kelsey D, Cantlon Jessica F
1Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY 14627 USA.
2Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637 USA.
NPJ Sci Learn. 2019 Nov 8;4:19. doi: 10.1038/s41539-019-0057-x. eCollection 2019.
Some scientists and public figures have hypothesized that women and men differ in their pursuit of careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) owing to biological differences in mathematics aptitude. However, little evidence supports such claims. Some studies of children and adults show gender differences in mathematics performance but in those studies it is impossible to disentangle intrinsic, biological differences from sociocultural influences. To investigate the early biology of mathematics and gender, we tested for gender differences in the neural processes of mathematics in young children. We measured 3-10-year-old children's neural development with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during naturalistic viewing of mathematics education videos. We implemented both frequentist and Bayesian analyses that quantify gender similarities and differences in neural processes. Across all analyses girls and boys showed significant gender similarities in neural functioning, indicating that boys and girls engage the same neural system during mathematics development.
一些科学家和公众人物推测，由于数学能力的生物学差异，女性和男性在追求科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的职业时存在差异。然而，几乎没有证据支持这种说法。一些针对儿童和成人的研究显示了数学成绩方面的性别差异，但在这些研究中，无法将内在的生物学差异与社会文化影响区分开来。为了研究数学与性别的早期生物学关系，我们测试了幼儿在数学神经过程中的性别差异。我们在幼儿自然观看数学教育视频时，使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）测量了3至10岁儿童的神经发育情况。我们实施了频率学派和贝叶斯分析，以量化神经过程中的性别异同。在所有分析中，女孩和男孩在神经功能上显示出显著的性别相似性，这表明男孩和女孩在数学发展过程中使用相同的神经系统。
