Children show greater inferior frontal gyrus activity than adults during numerical comparisons, while adults show greater left superior parietal activity than children¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causal r1 · q3
Currency · newest study 2009 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person · overdue for a recheck since 2014: baselines and conditions change

Subclaims¶

q3 i? A between-groups contrast revealed significantly greater activity for children in the IFG relative to adults, and greater activity for adults in left superior parietal cortex. → Cantlon Jessica F. 2009

Evidence¶

Cantlon Jessica F. 2009¶

Cantlon Jessica F., Libertus Melissa E., Pinel Philippe, Dehaene Stanislas, Brannon Elizabeth M., Pelphrey Kevin A. (2009). The Neural Development of an Abstract Concept of Number. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn.2008.21159

q3 · i? · causal · r1

Two-sample t test between children's and adults' conjunction maps within a union mask. Figure 3 reports IFG clusters at t(28) = 3.47 and 3.37 and a left superior parietal cluster at t(28) = 4.11, all p < .0001.

"Of the regions that emerged from the conjunction analysis, a between-groups contrast of children versus adults revealed significantly greater activity for children in the IFG relative to adults (Figure 3, left panel). Adults, on the other hand, exhibited significantly greater activity than children in left superior parietal cortex (Figure 3, right panel)."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• In children, the BOLD numerical ratio effect correlates with individual differences in the behavioral ratio effect in right OTC, left superior parietal cortex, and bilateral IFG; no such correlation reaches significance in adults — related
• Children aged 8–11 show significant activation in frontal-striatal-parietal regions during proactive inhibition and striatal activation during reactive inhibition, similar to regions reported in adults — related
• Children and adults engage a common network of occipito-temporal, precentral, and superior parietal cortices during numerical judgments of both Arabic numerals and dot arrays — related
• The numerical ratio effect in BOLD activity appears in superior parietal cortex in adults but in inferior frontal gyrus, precentral gyrus, and thalamus in children, with no group-level parietal ratio effect in children — related
• Functional connectivity between parietal cortex and occipito-temporal cortex during numerical processing is present in adults but absent in children, whose IFG instead correlates with both regions — related
• A graded left superior parietal retrieval-success effect emerges by age 12 but is absent in 8-year-olds — related
• Among children, differences in Arabic numeral performance are associated with ratio-dependent BOLD differences in left superior parietal cortex and right OTC, but dot array performance differences show no such brain differences — related
• Inferior parietal cortex (BA 39 and 40) shows greater overall activation in adults than children and a more pronounced effect of relational integration in adults — related