PDF(Pubmed)
Abstract：
Humans exhibit complex mathematical skills attributed to the exceptional enlargement of neocortical regions throughout evolution. In the current work, we initiated a novel exploration of the ancient subcortical neural network essential for mathematical cognition. Using a neuropsychological approach, we report that degeneration of two subcortical structures, the cerebellum and basal ganglia, impairs performance in symbolic arithmetic. We identify distinct computational impairments in male and female participants with cerebellar degeneration (CD) or Parkinson\'s disease (PD). The CD group exhibited a disproportionate cost when the arithmetic sum increased, suggesting that the cerebellum is critical for iterative procedures required for calculations. The PD group showed a disproportionate cost for equations with increasing addends, suggesting that the basal ganglia are critical for chaining multiple operations. In Experiment 2, the two patient groups exhibited intact practice gains for repeated equations at odds with an alternative hypothesis that these impairments were related to memory retrieval. Notably, we discuss how the counting and chaining operations relate to cerebellar and basal ganglia function in other task domains (e.g., motor processes). Overall, we provide a novel perspective on how the cerebellum and basal ganglia contribute to symbolic arithmetic. Our studies demonstrate the constraints on the computational role of two subcortical regions in higher cognition.
摘要：
人类表现出复杂的数学技能，这归因于整个进化过程中新皮层区域的异常扩大。在目前的工作中,我们开始了对数学认知至关重要的古老皮层下神经网络的新探索。用神经心理学的方法，我们报道了两个皮质下结构的退化，小脑和基底神经节,削弱了符号算术的性能。我们在患有小脑变性（CD）或帕金森病（PD）的男性和女性参与者中发现了不同的计算障碍。当算术总和增加时，CD组表现出不成比例的成本，这表明小脑对于计算所需的迭代程序至关重要。PD组显示出增加加数的方程式成本不成比例，表明基底神经节对于链接多个手术至关重要。在实验2中，两个患者组在重复方程中表现出完整的实践增益，这与另一种假设是这些损伤与记忆检索有关。值得注意的是,我们讨论了计数和链接操作如何与其他任务域中的小脑和基底神经节功能相关(例如，电机过程)。总的来说,我们提供了一个关于小脑和基底神经节如何有助于符号算术的新观点。我们的研究证明了两个皮质下区域在高级认知中的计算作用的限制。
