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Mathematical expertise modulates the architecture of dorsal and cortico-thalamic white matter tracts
To what extent are levels of cognitive expertise reflected in differential structural connectivity of the brain? We addressed this question by analyzing the white matter brain structure of experts (mathematicians) versus non-experts (non-mathematicians) using probabilistic tractography. Having mathe...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6497695/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31048754 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43400-6 |
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author | Jeon, Hyeon-Ae Kuhl, Ulrike Friederici, Angela D. |
author_facet | Jeon, Hyeon-Ae Kuhl, Ulrike Friederici, Angela D. |
author_sort | Jeon, Hyeon-Ae |
collection | PubMed |
description | To what extent are levels of cognitive expertise reflected in differential structural connectivity of the brain? We addressed this question by analyzing the white matter brain structure of experts (mathematicians) versus non-experts (non-mathematicians) using probabilistic tractography. Having mathematicians and non-mathematicians as participant groups enabled us to directly compare profiles of structural connectivity arising from individual levels of expertise in mathematics. Tracking from functional seed regions activated during the processing of complex arithmetic formulas revealed an involvement of various fiber bundles such the inferior fronto-occipital fascicle, arcuate fasciculus/superior longitudinal fasciculus (AF/SLF), cross-hemispheric connections of frontal lobe areas through the corpus callosum and cortico-subcortical connectivity via the bilateral thalamic radiation. With the aim of investigating expertise-dependent structural connectivity, the streamline density was correlated with the level of expertise, defined by automaticity of processing complex mathematics. The results showed that structural integrity of the AF/SLF was higher in individuals with higher automaticity, while stronger cortico-thalamic connectivity was associated with lower levels of automaticity. Therefore, we suggest that expertise in the domain of mathematics is reflected in plastic changes of the brain’s white matter structure, possibly reflecting a general principle of cognitive expertise. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-6497695 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2019 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-64976952019-05-17 Mathematical expertise modulates the architecture of dorsal and cortico-thalamic white matter tracts Jeon, Hyeon-Ae Kuhl, Ulrike Friederici, Angela D. Sci Rep Article To what extent are levels of cognitive expertise reflected in differential structural connectivity of the brain? We addressed this question by analyzing the white matter brain structure of experts (mathematicians) versus non-experts (non-mathematicians) using probabilistic tractography. Having mathematicians and non-mathematicians as participant groups enabled us to directly compare profiles of structural connectivity arising from individual levels of expertise in mathematics. Tracking from functional seed regions activated during the processing of complex arithmetic formulas revealed an involvement of various fiber bundles such the inferior fronto-occipital fascicle, arcuate fasciculus/superior longitudinal fasciculus (AF/SLF), cross-hemispheric connections of frontal lobe areas through the corpus callosum and cortico-subcortical connectivity via the bilateral thalamic radiation. With the aim of investigating expertise-dependent structural connectivity, the streamline density was correlated with the level of expertise, defined by automaticity of processing complex mathematics. The results showed that structural integrity of the AF/SLF was higher in individuals with higher automaticity, while stronger cortico-thalamic connectivity was associated with lower levels of automaticity. Therefore, we suggest that expertise in the domain of mathematics is reflected in plastic changes of the brain’s white matter structure, possibly reflecting a general principle of cognitive expertise. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-05-02 /pmc/articles/PMC6497695/ /pubmed/31048754 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43400-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
spellingShingle | Article Jeon, Hyeon-Ae Kuhl, Ulrike Friederici, Angela D. Mathematical expertise modulates the architecture of dorsal and cortico-thalamic white matter tracts |
title | Mathematical expertise modulates the architecture of dorsal and cortico-thalamic white matter tracts |
title_full | Mathematical expertise modulates the architecture of dorsal and cortico-thalamic white matter tracts |
title_fullStr | Mathematical expertise modulates the architecture of dorsal and cortico-thalamic white matter tracts |
title_full_unstemmed | Mathematical expertise modulates the architecture of dorsal and cortico-thalamic white matter tracts |
title_short | Mathematical expertise modulates the architecture of dorsal and cortico-thalamic white matter tracts |
title_sort | mathematical expertise modulates the architecture of dorsal and cortico-thalamic white matter tracts |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6497695/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31048754 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-43400-6 |
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