Investigating Frontoparietal Networks and Activation in Children with Mathematics Learning Difficulties: Cases with Different Deficit Profiles

Abstract

Approximately 15%-20% of school-aged children suffer from Mathematics Learning Difficulties (MLD). Most children with developmental dyscalculia (DD) or MLD also have comorbid cognitive deficits. Recent literature suggests that research should focus on uncovering the neural underpinnings of MLD across more inclusive samples, rather than limiting studies to pure cases of DD or MLD with highly stringent inclusion criteria. Therefore, this study aims to identify neural aberrancies that may be common across multiple MLD cases with different deficit profiles. Nine MLD cases and forty-five typically developing (TD) children, all around seven years old (27 boys), were recruited. Using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), brain data were collected during an approximate resting state and a mathematical computation task (addition). Graph theory was then applied to assess global and nodal network indicators of brain function. When comparing the network indicators and brain activation of the MLD cases to those of TD children, no unified neural aberrancy was found across all cases. However, three MLD cases did show distinct neural aberrancies compared to TD children. The study discusses the implications of these findings, considering both the neural aberrancies in the three MLD cases and the neural similarities found in the other six cases, which were comparable to those of the TD children. This raises important questions about the presence and nature of aberrant neural indicators in MLD across large cohorts and highlights the need for further research in this area.