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Effects of long-term practice and task complexity on brain activities when performing abacus-based mental calculations: a PET study

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European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study was to examine the neural bases for the exceptional mental calculation ability possessed by Chinese abacus experts through PET imaging.

Methods

We compared the different regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) patterns using 15O-water PET in 10 abacus experts and 12 non-experts while they were performing each of the following three tasks: covert reading, simple addition, and complex contiguous addition. All data collected were analyzed using SPM2 and MNI templates.

Results

For non-experts during the tasks of simple addition, the observed activation of brain regions were associated with coordination of language (inferior frontal network) and visuospatial processing (left parietal/frontal network). Similar activation patterns but with a larger visuospatial processing involvement were observed during complex contiguous addition tasks, suggesting the recruitment of more visuospatial memory for solving the complex problems. For abacus experts, however, the brain activation patterns showed slight differences when they were performing simple and complex addition tasks, both of which involve visuospatial processing (bilateral parietal/frontal network). These findings supported the notion that the experts were completing all the calculation process on a virtual mental abacus and relying on this same computational strategy in both simple and complex tasks, which required almost no increasing brain workload for solving the latter.

Conclusion

In conclusion, after intensive training and practice, the neural pathways in an abacus expert have been connected more effectively for performing the number encoding and retrieval that are required in abacus tasks, resulting in exceptional mental computational ability.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported from Ministry of Education (Promote Academic to Excellency Project, 89-B-FA22-1-4) and National Science Council (NSC96-2321-B040-005-MY3; 95-2314-B010-048-MY2) of Taiwan. The project was conducted in the campus of NYMU/TVGH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Tung-Hsin Wu & Chia-Lin Chen

  2. Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung County, Taiwan

    Yung-Hui Huang

  3. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ren-Shyan Liu

  4. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ren-Shyan Liu

  5. Brain Research Center and Institute of Brain Science, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Jen-Chuen Hsieh

  6. Department of Medical Research and Education, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan

    Jen-Chuen Hsieh

  7. Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, National Yang-Ming University, 155 Li-Nong St., Sec. 2, Taipei, Taiwan, 112

    Tung-Hsin Wu & Jason J. S. Lee

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  1. Tung-Hsin Wu
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  2. Chia-Lin Chen
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  3. Yung-Hui Huang
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  4. Ren-Shyan Liu
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  6. Jason J. S. Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jason J. S. Lee.

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Wu, TH., Chen, CL., Huang, YH. et al. Effects of long-term practice and task complexity on brain activities when performing abacus-based mental calculations: a PET study. Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging 36, 436–445 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-008-0949-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-008-0949-0

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