Brain markers of subtraction and multiplication skills in childhood: task-based functional connectivity and individualized structural similarity

Abstract

Arithmetic, a high-order cognitive ability, show marked individual difference over development. Despite recent advancements in neuroimaging techniques have enabled the identification of brain markers for individual differences in high-order cognitive abilities, it remains largely unknown about the brain markers for arithmetic. This study used a data-driven connectome-based prediction model to identify brain markers of arithmetic skills from arithmetic-state functional connectivity and individualized structural similarity in 132 children aged 8 to 15 years. We found that both subtraction-state functional connectivity and individualized SS successfully predicted subtraction and multiplication skills but multiplication-state functional connectivity failed to predict either skill. Among the four successful prediction models, most predictive connections were located in frontal–parietal, default-mode, and secondary visual networks. Further computational lesion analyses revealed the essential structural role of frontal–parietal network in predicting subtraction and the essential functional roles of secondary visual, language, and ventral multimodal networks in predicting multiplication. Finally, a few shared nodes but largely nonoverlapping functional and structural connections were found to predict subtraction and multiplication skills. Altogether, our findings provide new insights into the brain markers of arithmetic skills in children and highlight the importance of studying different connectivity modalities and different arithmetic domains to advance our understanding of children’s arithmetic skills.