Structural and Transcriptional Signatures of Arithmetic Abilities in Children

Abstract

Arithmetic ability is critical not only for everyday life, but also for academic achievement, career development, and future economic success. Individual differences of arithmetic skills in typically developing children and adolescents are related to the difference inter-individual differences in brain structures. However, most of present studies adopted the region of interest analysis method, and mainly focused on the left intraparietal sulcus region. To identify distributed brain regions related to arithmetic ability, we employed a cross-validated predictive model to analyze structural MRI data from children and adolescents. The gray matter volume (GMV) of wide-spread brain regions reliably predicted individual differences in arithmetic abilities measured by Comprehensive Mathematical Abilities Test. Further, we applied neuroimaging-transcriptome association analysis to explore transcriptional signatures associated with patterns of spatial organization of development changes of GMV in arithmetic-related brain regions. The anatomical development of brain regions associated with arithmetic ability primarily correlated with transcriptional profiles enriched for genes involved in neuronal development (myelination and axon ensheathment) and non-neuronal (gliogenesis and gial cell differentiation) expression. Our findings increase understanding of the neural and genetic mechanisms underlying children's arithmetic ability, and offer an applicable predictor for the typical development of the arithmetic ability in development stage.

Note:
Funding Information: This work was supported by National Science and Technology Innovation 2030 Major Program (2021ZD0203803), National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFA0709503) and National Nature Science Foundation of China grant (61971289).
Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Ethics: All experimental procedures were approved by the Northwestern University Institutional Review Board. Parental consents were obtained in minors participating in the study. The present study was approved by the Anhui Medical University Ethics Committee.

Keywords: Arithmetic ability, Children and adolescents, Structural MRI, Individual differences, Cross-validated predictive model, Gene expression