Brain correlates of early math and number skills: tracing changes related to age and instruction in a natural experiment

Vanderbilt University, Nashville TN

Investigators

Abstract

How do individual differences in children's brain mechanism for number abilities relate to gains during first grade mathematics, and how might first grade instruction drive changes in such brain mechanisms? These questions are addressed using a battery of brain imaging measures including brain structure (MRI,DTI), bloodflow changes (fMRI), and electrical responses (ERP). Pre-post brain measures track changes over the course of a school year within two groups segregated by a "school's cutoff date" into young first graders and old kindergarteners. This group contrast allows the impact of first grade instruction to be differentiated from maturation and school attendance.