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The impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment

Formal education has a long-term impact on an individual’s life. However, our knowledge of the effect of a specific lack of education, such as in mathematics, is currently poor but is highly relevant given the extant differences between countries in their educational curricula and the differences in...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zacharopoulos, George, Sella, Francesco, Cohen Kadosh, Roi
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8214709/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34099561
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2013155118
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author Zacharopoulos, George
Sella, Francesco
Cohen Kadosh, Roi
author_facet Zacharopoulos, George
Sella, Francesco
Cohen Kadosh, Roi
author_sort Zacharopoulos, George
collection PubMed
description Formal education has a long-term impact on an individual’s life. However, our knowledge of the effect of a specific lack of education, such as in mathematics, is currently poor but is highly relevant given the extant differences between countries in their educational curricula and the differences in opportunities to access education. Here we examined whether neurotransmitter concentrations in the adolescent brain could classify whether a student is lacking mathematical education. Decreased γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentration within the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) successfully classified whether an adolescent studies math and was negatively associated with frontoparietal connectivity. In a second experiment, we uncovered that our findings were not due to preexisting differences before a mathematical education ceased. Furthermore, we showed that MFG GABA not only classifies whether an adolescent is studying math or not, but it also predicts the changes in mathematical reasoning ∼19 mo later. The present results extend previous work in animals that has emphasized the role of GABA neurotransmission in synaptic and network plasticity and highlight the effect of a specific lack of education on MFG GABA concentration and learning-dependent plasticity. Our findings reveal the reciprocal effect between brain development and education and demonstrate the negative consequences of a specific lack of education during adolescence on brain plasticity and cognitive functions.
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spelling pubmed-82147092021-06-25 The impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment Zacharopoulos, George Sella, Francesco Cohen Kadosh, Roi Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Social Sciences Formal education has a long-term impact on an individual’s life. However, our knowledge of the effect of a specific lack of education, such as in mathematics, is currently poor but is highly relevant given the extant differences between countries in their educational curricula and the differences in opportunities to access education. Here we examined whether neurotransmitter concentrations in the adolescent brain could classify whether a student is lacking mathematical education. Decreased γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentration within the middle frontal gyrus (MFG) successfully classified whether an adolescent studies math and was negatively associated with frontoparietal connectivity. In a second experiment, we uncovered that our findings were not due to preexisting differences before a mathematical education ceased. Furthermore, we showed that MFG GABA not only classifies whether an adolescent is studying math or not, but it also predicts the changes in mathematical reasoning ∼19 mo later. The present results extend previous work in animals that has emphasized the role of GABA neurotransmission in synaptic and network plasticity and highlight the effect of a specific lack of education on MFG GABA concentration and learning-dependent plasticity. Our findings reveal the reciprocal effect between brain development and education and demonstrate the negative consequences of a specific lack of education during adolescence on brain plasticity and cognitive functions. National Academy of Sciences 2021-06-15 2021-06-07 /pmc/articles/PMC8214709/ /pubmed/34099561 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2013155118 Text en Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Social Sciences
Zacharopoulos, George
Sella, Francesco
Cohen Kadosh, Roi
The impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment
title The impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment
title_full The impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment
title_fullStr The impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment
title_full_unstemmed The impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment
title_short The impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment
title_sort impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment
topic Social Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8214709/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34099561
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2013155118
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