Received: 29 July 2020 Revised: 1 April 2021 Accepted: 3 May 2021 DOI: 10.1111/desc.13123 SHORT REPORT Neural representational similarity between symbolic and non-symbolic quantities predicts arithmetic skills in childhood but not adolescence Flora Schwartz1 Yuan Zhang1 Hyesang Chang1 Shelby Karraker1 Julia Boram Kang1 Vinod Menon1,2,3,4 1 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Abstract Medicine, Stanford, California, USA Mathematical knowledge is constructed hierarchically from basic understanding of 2 Department of Neurology and Neurological quantities and the symbols that denote them. Discrimination of numerical quantity in Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA both symbolic and non-symbolic formats has been linked to mathematical problem- 3 Stanford Neuroscience InstituteStanford solving abilities. However, little is known of the extent to which overlap in quantity University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA representations between symbolic and non-symbolic formats is related to individual 4 Symbolic Systems Program, Stanford differences in numerical problem solving and whether this relation changes with dif- University School of Medicine, Stanford, ferent stages of development and skill acquisition. Here we investigate the association California, USA between neural representational similarity (NRS) across symbolic and non-symbolic Correspondence quantity discrimination and arithmetic problem-solving skills in early and late devel- Vinod Menon, Stanford University School of opmental stages: elementary school children (ages 7–10 years) and adolescents and Medicine, 401 Quarry Rd, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. young adults (AYA, ages 14–21 years). In children, cross-format NRS in distributed Email:
[email protected] brain regions, including parietal and frontal cortices and the hippocampus, was posi- Flora Schwartz, Yuan Zhang, and Hyesang tively correlated with arithmetic skills.