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Infants' Brains Seem to Detect Errors in Arithmetic

September 11, 2006

A brain imaging study of 6- to 9-month-old infants has possibly revealed that simple arithmetic errors activate systems related to error detection in the child's brain.

The study seems to demonstrate that this error detection system may be present in the brains of infants and is activated when they are surprised by an incorrect arithmetic solution.

Studies of infant behavior have shown that infants tend to gaze longer at unexpected outcomes, although some researchers doubt whether increases in looking times means that infants are actually surprised by what they see. Researchers showed infants either correct or incorrect answers to simple visual mathematics questions. Two puppets were presented and then obscured by a screen; a hand was shown removing one of the puppets, and the screen was then removed, revealing either one (correct/expected) or two (incorrect/unexpected) puppets.

The researchers found that the infants looked longer at incorrect answers and that their brain waves were similar to those of adults given the same mathematical presentation.

This pattern of brain activity has commonly been found in cases where adults detect an error and is thought to represent a brain system for monitoring error or conflict.

From The Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), August 7-11, 2006: "Infant Brains Detect Arithmetic Errors" by Andrea Berger, Gabriel Tzur, and Michael I. Posner

Andrea Berger, Department of Behavioral Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel; e-mail: andrea@bgu.ac.il

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Monday, September 11, 2006