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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...

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Autores principales: Jeon, Hyeon-Ae, Kuhl, Ulrike, Friederici, Angela D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
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.
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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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