The Stability of Memory Rules Associative with the Mathematical Thinking Core

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Author(s)

Xiuzhen Wang 1,* Weiquan Gu 1

1. Harbin Normal University, Acheng District, Harbin City, 150301, China

* Corresponding author.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5815/ijmecs.2011.01.04

Received: 20 Oct. 2010 / Revised: 5 Nov. 2010 / Accepted: 6 Dec. 2010 / Published: 8 Feb. 2011

Index Terms

Stability, core system, Boolean rule, stabilized memory, fMRI

Abstract

Activation of how and where arithmetic operations are displayed in the brain has been observed in various number-processing tasks. However, it remains poorly understood whether stabilized memory of Boolean rules are associated with background knowledge. The present study reviewed behavioral and imaging evidence demonstrating that Boolean problem-solving abilities depend on the core systems of number-processing. The core systems account for a mathematical cultural background, and serve as the foundation for sophisticated mathematical knowledge. The Ebbinghaus paradigm was used to investigate learning-induced changes by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a retrieval task of Boolean rules. Functional imaging data revealed a common activation pattern in the left inferior parietal lobule and left inferior frontal gyrus during all Boolean tasks, which has been used for number-processing processing in former studies. All other regional activations were tasks-specific and prominently distributed in the left thalamus, bilateral parahippocampal gyrus, bilateral occipital lobe, and other subcortices during contrasting stabilized memory retrieval of Boolean tasks and number-processing tasks. The present results largely verified previous studies suggesting that activation patterns due to number-processing appear to reflect a basic anatomical substrate of stability of Boolean rules memory, which are derived from a network originally related to the core systems of number-processing.

Cite This Paper

Xiuzhen Wang, Weiquan Gu, "The Stability of Memory Rules Associative with the Mathematical Thinking Core", International Journal of Modern Education and Computer Science(IJMECS), vol.3, no.1, pp.24-30, 2011. DOI:10.5815/ijmecs.2011.01.04

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