Cortical thinning in anterior and superior frontal cortex is associated with better arithmetic achievement across all children¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associational r1 · q3 · i2 medium
Currency · newest study 2015 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i2 Across all 48 children, WRAT-3 arithmetic scores were negatively correlated with cortical thickness in anterior frontal cortex (r = -0.292, p = 0.04) and superior frontal cortex (r = -0.291, p = 0.04). → Chaddock-Heyman L 2015

Evidence¶

Chaddock-Heyman L 2015¶

Chaddock-Heyman L, Erickson KI, Kienzler C, King M, Pontifex MB, Raine LB, Hillman CH, Kramer AF. (2015). The Role of Aerobic Fitness in Cortical Thickness and Mathematics Achievement in Preadolescent Children. PLoS ONE 10(8): e0134115. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0134115

q3 · i2 · associational · r1

Pearson correlations across all 48 children between cortical thickness in nine regions and WRAT-3 reading, spelling, and arithmetic. The study reports arithmetic "negatively correlated with cortical thickness in anterior frontal cortex (r = -0.292, p = 0.04)" and superior frontal cortex (r = -0.291, p = 0.04).

"In addition, across all children, WRAT-3 arithmetic scores were negatively correlated with cortical thickness in anterior frontal cortex (r = -0.292, p = 0.04), and superior frontal cortex (r = -0.291, p = 0.04) ( Table 3)( Fig 2)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• The authors propose aerobic fitness as a possible predictor of developmental cortical thinning and a pathway to enhanced cognition and scholastic performance — a broader claim this one bears on
• Aerobic fitness group differences in cortical thickness are regionally specific, absent in middle frontal, middle temporal, and parietal areas — related
• Higher fit preadolescent children show decreased cortical thickness in superior frontal, superior temporal, and lateral occipital cortex relative to lower fit children — related
• Higher fit children show superior mathematics achievement but no reading or spelling advantage over lower fit children — related
• The brain regions showing fitness-related thinning overlap with regions undergoing typical developmental cortical thinning between ages 5 and 11 — related
• SES moderates the brain-behavior relationship in children's arithmetic, with higher and lower SES children engaging different neurocognitive systems — related
• The authors hypothesize that brain-reading cortical thickness correlations are positive in early reading acquisition and negative at later, consolidated stages — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)