Elise Klein

Université Paris Cité | Paris 5

Numerical cognition is a case of multi-modular and distributed cerebral processing. So far neither the anatomo-functional connections between the cortex areas involved nor their integration into established frameworks such as the differentiation between dorsal and ventral processing streams have been specified. The current study addressed this issu...

The current study provides a generalizable account of the anatomo-functional associations as well as the connectivity of representational codes underlying numerical processing as suggested by the triple code model (TCM) of numerical cognition. By evaluating the neural networks subserving numerical cognition in two specific and substantially differe...

Verbally-mediated arithmetic fact retrieval has been suggested to be subserved by a left-lateralized network including angular gyrus and hippocampus. However, the contribution of these areas to retrieval of arithmetic facts has been under debate lately, challenging the prominent role of the angular gyrus in arithmetic fact retrieval. In the present...

Arithmetic fact retrieval deficits in acute stroke patients can arise after the severing ofwhite matter connections within left temporo-parietal areas (Smaczny et al., 2023). Thecurrent study examined white matter disconnections in multiplication, subtraction, andaddition in patients in the chronic stage of stroke. The strongest effects were found...

Even though game elements can increase motivation and engagement, they also might distract learners and thereby decrease performance and learning outcomes. In the current study, we investigated the effects of intrinsically integrated game elements on performance and learning outcomes. In a pre-post training study, 85 adult participants were randoml...

Living in our information- and technology-driven society at the beginning of the 21st century requires the ability to understand and handle numbers not only for a successful career but also for coping with everyday life tasks [...]

Recent research indicated that fraction understanding is an important predictor of later mathematical achievement. In the current study we investigated associations between basic numerical skills and students’ fraction processing. We analyzed data of 939 German secondary school students (age range = 11.92 to 18.00 years) and evaluated the determina...

Developmental dyscalculia is a specific learning disorder that persists over lifetime and can have an enormous impact on personal, health-related, and professional aspects of life. Despite its central importance, the origin both at the cognitive and neural level is not yet well understood. Several classification schemas of dyscalculia have been pro...

Arithmetic fact retrieval has been suggested to recruit a left-lateralized network comprising perisylvian language areas, parietal areas such as the angular gyrus (AG), and non-neocortical structures such as the hippocampus. However, the underlying white matter connectivity of these areas has not been evaluated systematically so far. Using simple m...

Objective: Computerized neglect tests could significantly deepen our disorder-specific knowledge by effortlessly providing additional behavioral markers that are hardly or not extractable from existing paper-and-pencil versions. This study investigated how testing format (paper versus digital), and screen size (small, medium, large) affect the Cen...

It is still a matter of scientific debate whether the line bisection bias frequently observed in patients with spatial neglect is due to attentional underawareness of the left end of the line, attentional hyperattention towards the right end, or a logarithmically compressed perception of the line. To address this question, neglect patients who show...

The poster describes the results of a re-analysis of previous data ( https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.10.27.465904 ) using Bayesian Hypothesis Testing.

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a developmental disorder characterized by arithmetic difficulties. Recently, it has been suggested that the neural networks supporting procedure-based calculation (e.g., in subtraction) and left-hemispheric verbal arithmetic fact retrieval (e.g., in multiplication) are partially distinct. Here we compared the neuro...

The prominent view in numerical cognition is that highly overlearned arithmetic facts are verbally mediated and unilaterally processed in a left-hemispheric network, including language areas. However, this view has recently been challenged. Here, we evaluated the hemispheric specialization of verbal arithmetic fact retrieval and number magnitude pr...

Arithmetic fact retrieval has been suggested to recruit a left-lateralized network comprising perisylvian language areas, parietal areas such as the angular gyrus (AG), and subcortical structures such as the hippocampus. However, the underlying white matter connectivity of these areas has not been evaluated systematically so far. Using simple multi...

Accumulating evidence identifies emotions as drivers of effective learning. In parallel, game-based learning was found to emotionally engage learners, allegedly harnessing the fundamental tie between emotions and cognition. Questioning further whether and how game-based learning elicit emotional processes, the current fMRI study examined the neurof...

Computerization of diagnostic neglect tests can deepen our knowledge of neglect specific abnormalities, by effortlessly providing additional behavioral markers that are hardly extractable from existing paper-and-pencil versions. However, so far it is not known whether the digitization and/or a change in size format impact neglect patients' search b...

Digital technology has an increasing influence on writing processes. In this context, the question arises whether changes in writing mode (i.e., handwriting vs. computer‐keyboard typing) also require changes in writing assessments. However, data directly comparing writing mode influences in children with and without developmental writing deficits a...

Background : Fractions are known to be difficult for children and adults. Behavioral studies suggest that magnitude processing of fractions can be improved via number line estimation (NLE) trainings, but little is known about the neural correlates of fraction learning. Method : To examine the neuro-cognitive foundations of fraction learning, behav...

The attentional spatial-numerical association of response codes (Att-SNARC) effect (Fischer, Castel, Dodd, & Pratt, 2003)—the finding that participants are quicker to detect left-side targets when the targets are preceded by small numbers and quicker to detect right-side targets when they are preceded by large numbers—has been used as evidence for...

In the human brain, a (relative) functional asymmetry (i.e., laterality; functional and performance differences between the two cerebral hemispheres) exists for a variety of cognitive domains (e.g., language, visual-spatial processing, etc.). For numerical cognition, both bilateral and unilateral processing has been proposed with the retrieval of a...

Developmental dyscalculia (DD) is a chronic condition that poses not only a barrier to employment and socio-emotional wellbeing but that also persists into adulthood. Thus, understanding the neuro-cognitive foundations of DD is relevant for both children and adults with DD. However, so far the vast majority of scientific research endeavours has bee...

Changes in number line estimation (NLE) performance are frequently used as an indicator for the development of the number magnitude representation. For this purpose, two different task versions have been applied: a traditional bounded and a relatively new unbounded NLE task. Previous studies mainly assessed primary school children or adults showing...

Background Difficult cognitive tasks are often associated with negative feelings. This can be already the case for the mere anticipation of having to do a difficult task. For the case of difficult math tasks, it was recently suggested that such a negative emotional response may be exclusive to highly math-anxious individuals. However, it is also co...

It is often argued that game-based learning is particularly effective because of the emotionally engaging nature of games. We employed both automatic facial emotion detection as well as subjective ratings to evaluate emotional engagement of adult participants completing either a game-based numerical task or a non-game-based equivalent. Using a mach...

Previous research has proposed that the approximate number system (ANS) constitutes a building block for later mathematical abilities. Therefore, numerous studies investigated the relationship between ANS acuity and mathematical performance, but results are inconsistent. Properties of the experimental design have been discussed as a potential expla...

Previous studies on the processing of fractions and proportions focused mainly on the processing of their overall magnitude information in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). However, the IPS is also associated with domain-general cognitive functions beyond processing overall magnitude, which may nevertheless be involved in operating on magnitude infor...

Background: Recent research indicates that processing proportion magnitude is associated with activation in the intraparietal sulcus. Thus, brain areas associated with the processing of numbers (i.e., absolute magnitude) were activated during processing symbolic fractions as well as non-symbolic proportions. Here, we investigated systematically th...

Recent neuroimaging studies identified posterior regions in the temporal and parietal lobes as neuro-functional correlates of subitizing and global Gestalt perception. Beyond notable overlap on a neuronal level both mechanisms are remarkably similar on a behavioral level representing both a specific form of visual top-down processing where single e...

Transcranial electric stimulation such as transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have been used to investigate structure-function relationships in numerical cognition. Recently, tRNS was suggested to be more effective than tDCS. However, so far there is no evidence on the differential impact...

Recent neuroimaging studies identified posterior regions in the temporal and the parietal lobe as neuronal correlates of subitizing (Ansari et al., 2007; Vetter et al., 2010; Vuokko et al., 2013) as well as of Gestalt perception (Huberle & Karnath, 2012; Rennig et al. 2013, 2015). Beyond notable overlap on a neuronal level Gestalt perception and su...

Performance in visual quantification tasks shows two characteristic patterns as a function of set size. A precise subitizing process for small sets (up to four) was contrasted with an approximate estimation process for larger sets. The spatial arrangement of elements in a set also influences visual quantification performance, with frequently percei...

Premature birth is a significant risk factor for learning disabilities in general and mathematics learning difficulties in particular. However, the exact reasons for this relation are still unknown. While typical numerical development is associated with a frontal-to-parietal shift of brain activation with increasing age, influences of gestational a...

We evaluated neuro-functional changes associated with late acquisition of reading in an illiterate adult who underwent 20 longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans during 2 years, while the participant progressed from complete illiteracy to a modest level of alphabetical decoding. Initially, the participant did not activate ne...

Numbers are an important part of everyday life in our modern knowledge societies. Accordingly, numerical deficits are associated with severe consequences for life prospects of affected individuals and society as a whole. Therefore, increasing research interest is devoted to broaden our understanding of the neurocognitive underpinnings of numerical...

The approximate number system (ANS) was proposed to be a building block for later mathematical abilities. Several measures have been used interchangeably to assess ANS acuity. Some of these measures were based on accuracy data, whereas others relied on response time (RT) data or combined accuracy and RT data. Previous studies challenged the view th...

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Experimental data. (XLSX)

There is a growing body of evidence indicating a crucial role of Exner’s area in (hand-) writing symbolic codes such as letters and words. However, a recent study reported a patient with a lesion affecting Broca’s and Exner’s area, who suffered from severe peripheral agraphia for letters but not for Arabic digits. The authors suggested a speculativ...

Considering eye-fixation behavior is standard in reading research to investigate underlying cognitive processes. However, in numerical cognition research eye-tracking is used less often and less systematically. Nevertheless, we identified over 40 studies on this topic from the last 40 years with an increase of eye-tracking studies on numerical cogn...

In recent theoretical considerations as well as in neuroimaging findings the left angular gyrus (AG) has been associated with the retrieval of arithmetic facts. This interpretation was corroborated by higher AG activity when processing trained as compared with untrained multiplication problems. However, so far neural correlates of processing traine...

There is evidence for a systematic association of numbers and space. A prominent finding supporting this notion is the spatial-numerical association of response codes (SNARC) effect describing relatively faster responses to smaller numbers using a left-hand key and to larger numbers using a right-hand key. However, the assumption of the SNARC effec...

Numeracy is a key competency for living in our modern knowledge society. Therefore, it is essential to support numerical learning from basic to more advanced competency levels. From educational psychology it is known that learning is most effective when the respective content is neither too easy nor too demanding in relation to learners’ prerequisi...

In line with our hypothesis, we created two regions of interest (ROIs) for the multivariate pattern analysis and the univariate ROI analysis using the SPM Anatomy toolbox v2.0 (Eickhoff et al., 2005, 2007, 2006): an anatomical ROI covering (1) the left angular gyrus (AG) (Area PGa and PGp) and (2) the hippocampus bilaterally (CA1-3, DG, EC and subi...

Deficits in basic numerical abilities have been investigated repeatedly as potential risk factors of math anxiety. Previous research suggested that also a deficient approximate number system (ANS), which is discussed as being the foundation for later math abilities, underlies math anxiety. However, these studies examined this hypothesis by investig...

Only recently has the complex anatomo-functional system underlying numerical cognition become accessible to evaluation in the living brain. We identified 27 studies investigating brain connectivity in numerical cognition. Despite considerable heterogeneity regarding methodological approaches, populations investigated, and assessment procedures impl...

Previous studies that investigated the association of numbers and space in humans came to contradictory conclusions about the spatial character of the mental number magnitude representation and about how it may be influenced by unilateral spatial neglect. The present study aimed to disentangle the debated influence of perceptual vs. representationa...

Recent neuro-imaging research identified the bilateral intraparietal sulcus (IPS) to be a key area associated with number processing. However, causal structure-function relationships are hard to evaluate from neuro-imaging techniques such as fMRI. Nevertheless, brain stimulation methods like transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) allow for...

Research on numerical cognition has addressed the processing of nonsymbolic quantities and symbolic digits extensively. However, magnitude processing of measurement units is still a neglected topic in numerical cognition research. Hence, we investigated the processing of measurement units to evaluate whether typical effects of multi-digit number pr...

Background Empirical research on the relationship between linguistic and numerical processing revealed inconsistent results for different levels of cognitive processing (e.g., lexical, semantic) as well as different stimulus materials (e.g., Arabic digits, number words, letters, non-number words). Information of dissociation patterns in aphasic pat...

Quantifier expressions like "many" and "at least" are part of a rich repository of words in language representing magnitude information. The role of numerical processing in comprehending quantifiers was studied in a semantic truth value judgment task, asking adults to quickly verify sentences about visual displays using numerical (at least seven, a...