ArticleBrain structure & function2016
Plasticity of left perisylvian white-matter tracts is associated with individual differences in math learning.
Article in Brain structure & function, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 32 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
32 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 65 citations in OpenAlex.
- The neuroscience basis and educational interventions of mathematical cognitive impairment and anxiety: a systematic literature review.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Pooled it
- Training-Induced Neural Plasticity in Youth: A Systematic Review of Structural and Functional MRI Studies.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2020Pooled it
- Longitudinal Trajectories of Global and Domain-Specific Cognition After Stroke Using the Oxford Cognitive Screen.Stroke · 2026Article
- Short-Term Developmental Trajectories of Dorsal-Ventral Pathways and Their Relationships with First-Grade Learning.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Math skills and microstructure of the middle longitudinal fasciculus: A developmental investigation.PloS one · 2025Article
- Development of the arcuate fasciculus is linked to learning gains in reading.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2025Article
- Microstructural differences in the cingulum and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus are associated with (extinction) learning.BMC psychology · 2024Article
- Positive or negative environmental modulations on human brain development: the morpho-functional outcomes of music training or stress.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2023Review
- Changes in the superior longitudinal fasciculus and anterior thalamic radiation in the left brain are associated with developmental dyscalculia.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2023Article
- Neurobiological underpinnings of rapid white matter plasticity during intensive reading instruction.NeuroImage · 2021Article
- Development of brain white matter and math computation ability in children born very preterm and full-term.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2021Article
- Linear and nonlinear profiles of weak behavioral and neural differentiation between numerical operations in children with math learning difficulties.Neuropsychologia · 2021Article
- Emerging neurodevelopmental perspectives on mathematical learning.Developmental review : DR · 2021Article
- The Neurological Basis of Developmental Dyslexia and Related Disorders: A Reappraisal of the Temporal Hypothesis, Twenty Years on.Brain sciences · 2021Review
- Word learning reveals white matter plasticity in preschool children.Brain structure & function · 2020Article
- Evaluating Preschool Visual Attentional Selective-Set: Preliminary ERP Modeling and Simulation of Target Enhancement Homology.Brain sciences · 2020Article
- Longitudinal associations between white matter maturation and cognitive development across early childhood.Human brain mapping · 2019Article
- Separate lanes for adding and reading in the white matter highways of the human brain.Nature communications · 2019Article
- Mathematical expertise modulates the architecture of dorsal and cortico-thalamic white matter tracts.Scientific reports · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Plasticity of white matter tracts is thought to be essential for cognitive development and academic skill acquisition in children. However, a dearth of high-quality diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data measuring longitudinal changes with learning, as well as methodological difficulties in multi-time point tract identification have limited our ability to investigate plasticity of specific white matter tracts. Here, we examine learning-related changes of white matter tracts innervating inferior parietal, prefrontal and temporal regions following an intense 2-month math tutoring program. DTI data were acquired from 18 third grade children, both before and after tutoring. A novel fiber tracking algorithm based on a White Matter Query Language (WMQL) was used to identify three sections of the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) linking frontal and parietal (SLF-FP), parietal and temporal (SLF-PT) and frontal and temporal (SLF-FT) cortices, from which we created child-specific probabilistic maps. The SLF-FP, SLF-FT, and SLF-PT tracts identified with the WMQL method were highly reliable across the two time points and showed close correspondence to tracts previously described in adults. Notably, individual differences in behavioral gains after 2 months of tutoring were specifically correlated with plasticity in the left SLF-FT tract. Our results extend previous findings of individual differences in white matter integrity, and provide important new insights into white matter plasticity related to math learning in childhood. More generally, our quantitative approach will be useful for future studies examining longitudinal changes in white matter integrity associated with cognitive skill development.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.