Trial reportThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2019
Training on Abacus-Based Mental Calculation Enhances Visuospatial Working Memory in Children.
Trial report in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Domain-general behavioral gains and neural correlates of cognitive training in healthy populations: a neuroimaging meta-analysis.Behavioral and brain functions : BBF · 2026Pooled it
- Review
- Dedifferentiation and Transfer in Executive Function and Math Ability Following a Five-Year Abacus Training in Schoolchildren.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Gender Moderates the Neural Impact of Problematic Media Use on Working Memory in Preschoolers: An fNIRS Study.Brain sciences · 2025Article
- The effect of a 2-month abacus training on students with developmental dyscalculia.Cognitive processing · 2025Article
- Article
- Long-term abacus training gains in children are predicted by medial temporal lobe anatomy and circuitry.Developmental science · 2024Article
- Cortical and white matter substrates supporting visuospatial working memory.Clinical neurophysiology : official journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology · 2024Article
- Long-Term Bridge Training Induces Functional Plasticity Changes in the Brain of Early-Adult Individuals.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Reshaping the Cortical Connectivity Gradient by Long-Term Cognitive Training During Development.Neuroscience bulletin · 2024Article
- Effects of Abacus Training on Auditory Spatial Maturation in Children with Normal Hearing.International archives of otorhinolaryngology · 2023Article
- Early Event-Related Potential During Figure and Object Perception of Abacus Mental Calculation Training Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2022Article
- Gender-related differences in frontal-parietal modular segregation and altered effective connectivity in internet gaming disorder.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2021Article
- Stress Classification by Multimodal Physiological Signals Using Variational Mode Decomposition and Machine Learning.Journal of healthcare engineering · 2021Article
- A Review of the Effects of Abacus Training on Cognitive Functions and Neural Systems in Humans.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Review
- Cognitive training using the abacus: a literature review study on the benefits for different age groups.Dementia & neuropsychologiaArticle
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Abacus-based mental calculation (AMC) involves temporary storage and manipulation of an imaginary abacus closely related to the function of visuospatial working memory (VSWM). The present study thus investigated the effects of AMC training on VSWM and its neural correlates. A total of 144 human subjects (67 boys) were assigned to AMC or control groups at their entry to primary school. The AMC group received 2 h AMC training per week for 5 school years, whereas the control group spent the time in activities, such as conventional calculation and reading. Raven's Intelligence Test was administered both before and after training. Two arithmetic tests and a VSWM task were conducted after training. Among these participants, fMRI data were collected from 64 children for the VSWM task. Behavioral results indicated that the AMC group outperformed controls on both arithmetic and VSWM tasks, but not on Raven's Intelligence Test. While the two groups activated similar regions during the VSWM task, the AMC group showed greater activation than the controls in frontal, parietal, and occipital areas. Interestingly, the activation of right middle frontal gyrus mediated the relation between the arithmetic ability and the VSWM performance in the AMC group, suggesting that the frontal region may be the neural substrate underlying the transfer effect from AMC training to VSWM. Although the transfer effects seem quite limited considering the length and intensity of the training, these findings suggest that long-term AMC training not only improves arithmetic ability but also has a potential positive effect on VSWM.
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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.