ArticleDevelopmental science2021
Neural representational similarity between symbolic and non-symbolic quantities predicts arithmetic skills in childhood but not adolescence.
Article in Developmental science, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Brain-wide decoding of numbers and letters: Converging evidence from multivariate fMRI analysis and probabilistic meta-analysis.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2025Pooled it
- The association between longitudinal changes in inter-hemispheric IPS functional connectivity and math gains depends on children's age and task requirements.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Latent Neurocognitive Mechanisms Underlying Quantity Discrimination in Children with and without Mathematical Learning Disabilities.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- How do basic numerical skills matter in the association of phonological processing with arithmetic?BMC psychology · 2025Article
- Distinct neural representational changes following cross-format number tutoring in children with mathematical difficulties.NPJ science of learning · 2025Article
- Symbolic numerical generalization through representational alignment.CogSci ... Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Cognitive Science Society (U.S.). Conference · 2025Article
- Short-term number sense training recapitulates long-term neurodevelopmental changes from childhood to adolescence.Developmental science · 2024Article
- Learning-induced reorganization of number neurons and emergence of numerical representations in a biologically inspired neural network.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Cortical representations of numbers and nonsymbolic quantities expand and segregate in children from 5 to 8 years of age.PLoS biology · 2023Article
- Behavioral Studies Using Large-Scale Brain Networks - Methods and Validations.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
Mathematical knowledge is constructed hierarchically from basic understanding of quantities and the symbols that denote them. Discrimination of numerical quantity in both symbolic and non-symbolic formats has been linked to mathematical problem-solving abilities. However, little is known of the extent to which overlap in quantity representations between symbolic and non-symbolic formats is related to individual differences in numerical problem solving and whether this relation changes with different stages of development and skill acquisition. Here we investigate the association between neural representational similarity (NRS) across symbolic and non-symbolic quantity discrimination and arithmetic problem-solving skills in early and late developmental stages: elementary school children (ages 7-10 years) and adolescents and young adults (AYA, ages 14-21 years). In children, cross-format NRS in distributed brain regions, including parietal and frontal cortices and the hippocampus, was positively correlated with arithmetic skills. In contrast, no brain region showed a significant association between cross-format NRS and arithmetic skills in the AYA group. Our findings suggest that the relationship between symbolic-non-symbolic NRS and arithmetic skills depends on developmental stage. Taken together, our study provides evidence for both mapping and estrangement hypotheses in the context of numerical problem solving, albeit over different cognitive developmental stages.
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