Ng Chan-Tat, Lung Tzu-Chen, Chang Ting-Ting
Department of Psychology, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Center for Vital Longevity, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, United States.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2021 Mar 10;15:631438. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2021.631438. eCollection 2021.
The practice of mathematical word problem is ubiquitous and thought to impact academic achievement. However, the underlying neural mechanisms are still poorly understood. In this study, we investigate how lexical consistency of word problem description is modulated in adults' brain responses during word problem solution. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging methods, we examined compare word problems that included relational statements, such as "A dumpling costs 9 dollars. A wonton is 2 dollars less than a dumpling. How much does a wonton cost?" and manipulated lexical consistency (consistent: the relational term consistent with the operation to be performed, e.g., more-addition/inconsistent: e.g., less-addition) and problem operation (addition/subtraction). We found a consistency by operation interaction in the widespread fronto-insular-parietal activations, including the anterior insula, dorsoanterior cingulate cortex, middle frontal gyrus, and intraparietal sulcus, such that inconsistent problems engaged stronger activations than consistent problems for addition, whereas the consistency effect was inverse for subtraction. Critically, these results were more salient in the less successful problem solvers than their more successful peers. Our study is the first to demonstrate that lexical consistency effects on arithmetic neural networks are modulated during reading word problem that required distinct arithmetic operations. More broadly, our study has strong potentials to add linkage between neuroscience and education by remediating deficits and enhance instruction design in the school curriculum.
数学应用题练习无处不在，且被认为会影响学业成绩。然而，其潜在的神经机制仍知之甚少。在本研究中，我们探究了在解决应用题过程中，应用题描述的词汇一致性如何在成人大脑反应中受到调节。我们使用功能磁共振成像方法，检查并比较了包含关系陈述的应用题，例如“一个饺子9美元。一个馄饨比一个饺子便宜2美元。一个馄饨多少钱？”，并操纵了词汇一致性（一致：关系词与要执行的运算一致，例如，更多 - 加法/不一致：例如，更少 - 加法）和问题运算（加法/减法）。我们发现，在广泛的额 - 脑岛 - 顶叶激活区域，包括前脑岛、背侧前扣带回皮质、额中回和顶内沟，存在运算与一致性的交互作用，即对于加法运算，不一致的问题比一致的问题激活更强，而对于减法运算，一致性效应则相反。关键的是，这些结果在不太成功的问题解决者中比更成功的同龄人中更为显著。我们的研究首次表明，在需要不同算术运算的读题过程中，词汇一致性对算术神经网络的影响会受到调节。更广泛地说，我们的研究很有潜力通过弥补缺陷来加强神经科学与教育之间的联系，并改进学校课程中的教学设计。
