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Published Online May 7, 2009
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1171599

Reports

Submitted on January 29, 2009
Accepted on April 27, 2009

Recruitment of an Area Involved in Eye Movements During Mental Arithmetic

André Knops 1*, Bertrand Thirion 2, Edward M. Hubbard 1, Vincent Michel 3, Stanislas Dehaene 4

1 INSERM, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.; CEA, I2BM, NeuroSpin, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.; Université Paris-Sud, F-91405 Orsay, France.
2 CEA, I2BM, NeuroSpin, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.; INRIA Saclay – Île de France, Orsay, France.
3 CEA, I2BM, NeuroSpin, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.; Université Paris-Sud, F-91405 Orsay, France.; INRIA Saclay – Île de France, Orsay, France.
4 INSERM, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.; CEA, I2BM, NeuroSpin, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.; Université Paris-Sud, F-91405 Orsay, France.; Collège de France, Paris, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
André Knops , E-mail: knops.andre{at}gmail.com

Throughout the history of mathematics, concepts of number and space have been tightly intertwined. We tested the hypothesis that cortical circuits for spatial attention contribute to mental arithmetic. We trained a multivariate classifier to infer the direction of an eye movement, left or right, from the brain activation measured in posterior parietal cortex. Without further training, the classifier then generalized to an arithmetic task. Its left versus right classification could be used to sort out subtraction versus addition trials, whether performed with symbols or with sets of dots. These findings are consistent with the suggestion that mental arithmetic co-opts parietal circuitry associated with spatial coding.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Superior Parietal Cortex Is Critical for the Manipulation of Information in Working Memory.
M. Koenigs, A. K. Barbey, B. R. Postle, and J. Grafman (2009)
J. Neurosci. 29, 14980-14986
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)