Checking the Academic Selection argument. Psychol. She said she had never seen anything like it. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. Res. Abacus, which represents numbers via a visuospatial format, is a traditional device to facilitate arithmetic operations. The right hemisphere, which is the faster processor, then allows children to do incredibly fast mental calculations. Sci. The brain is not a static structure. doi: 10.1016/0010-0277(77)90016-6, Hatano, G., and Osawa, K. (1983). Sci. As parents and teachers, we must give them the tools necessary to harness their natural potential lest they journey life without realizing their full potential. The editor and reviewer's affiliations are the latest provided on their Loop research profiles and may not reflect their situation at the time of review. Resour. Training on abacus-based mental calculation enhances visuospatial working memory in children. Digit memory of grand experts in abacus-derived mental calculation. Other interventions for improving cognitive functions should be pursued. Dividing the upper and lower portion of the device is a horizontal bar called a beam. Trends Cogn. The beads below the beam are called earth beads, while the beads above the beam are called heaven beads. When she started if I asked her what 2+3 was, she would have to count on her fingers to figure it out. Copyright 2020 Wang. Finally, effects of AMC training on special populations should be another important trend for future AMC research. Front. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0036410, Lee, Y., Lu, M., and Ko, H. (2007). Furthermore, existing AMC studies have mainly utilized unimodal approaches to investigate the neural plasticity. (D) The second step of addition is adding the intermediated result to 613. it strengthens the brain by activating the power of both hemispheres. Working memory capacity and fluid abilities: examining the correlation between Operation Span and Raven. Hum. It is thus plausible to speculate that frequent involvements of the frontal-parietal regions during training lead to enhanced neural efficiency of these areas, which may in turn facilitate memory updating. Neuroimage 22, 8394. Investigating the predictive roles of working memory and IQ in academic attainment. 106, 2029. doi: 10.1177/1745691616635612, Mellet, E., Tzourio, N., Crivello, F., Joliot, M., Denis, M., and Mazoyer, B. Given the functional role of the visual cortical areas in visuospatial encoding (Engel et al., 1994; Malach et al., 1995), Li et al. 
Dev. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.02.033, Zhou, H., Geng, F., Wang, Y., Wang, C., Hu, Y., and Chen, F. (2019). (2013). 12, 347358. In the literature, training-induced activation decreases have been suggested to be accounted for by enhanced neural efficiency in brain regions that are sensitive to cognitive training (Dux et al., 2009). doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.10.003, Sala, G., Burgoyne, A. P., Macnamara, B. N., Hambrick, D. Z., Campitelli, G., and Gobet, F. (2017). Diamond, A., and Lee, K. (2011). Learn. Trends Cogn.
J. Educ. Here, we focus on abacus-based mental calculation (AMC), a specific skill utilized for mental calculations. Cogn. Transfer of learning after updating training mediated by the striatum. Given the functional role of superior parietal lobules in information maintenance (Koch et al., 2005), the beneficial effects on letter memory spans might be accounted for by enhanced neural communication between the bilateral parietal regions. Still, a number of important issues remain uninvestigated, and we anticipate that future studies will solve these issues. Bull. These findings suggest that AMC-trained children are more able to access numerical magnitudes from numerical symbols both intentionally and automatically. Neuron 63, 127138. When children use their index and thumb to move the abacus beads to perform arithmetic calculations, there is a quick communication between the finger movements and the brain. Considering AMC users extraordinary gains in arithmetic ability, a question worth exploring is whether this arithmetic advantage is accompanied by an advancement in basic numerical magnitude processing. Reading: When doing equations, children read the beads on the abacus. doi: 10.1016/j.cogdev.2017.02.002. (2012). La maestra es bilinge con un gran caracter muy dulce y comunicativa tanto con los nios como con los padres. Pharmacol. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.06.051, Donlan, C., and Wu, C. (2017). Perspect. 103, 1729. 17, 336344. (2015), 70 primary school students were divided into two groups who had received either 3 years AMC training or similar amounts of additional standard math curriculum. is then amplified by using multiple pathways such as spoken numbers and flash anzan. Intelligence 59, 7283. Dev. Implications for future research are provided. Res. Notably, most past studies (Hu et al., 2011; Li et al., 2013; Wang et al., 2015; Barner et al., 2016; Kamali et al., 2019) have detected cognitive benefits or neuroplasticity after 3 years of AMC training the amount of time when typical children can complete most existing AMC curricula. Meanings of Skill: effects of abacus expertise on number representation. Intelligence 38, 529539. Rep. 5, 17. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0705843104, Frank, M. C., and Barner, D. (2012). Does your child love math and want to take it to the next level? Psychol. (2003) reported that AMC operations in adults were associated with enhanced involvement of neural resources in the fusiform gyrus, which is an integral part of the ventral occipitotemporal junction. 31, 161168.
doi: 10.1016/j.edurev.2016.02.002, Sala, G., and Gobet, F. (2017). Child Psychol. Several research groups have utilized neuroimaging methods such as positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine brain regions engaged in AMC operations (Hanakawa et al., 2003; Chen et al., 2006; Wu et al., 2009; Ku et al., 2012; Du et al., 2013). Still, caution is needed when extend the conclusions to a more general situation. As AMC operations involve temporary storage of imaginary beads in different visuospatial locations, AMC training may especially affect the visuospatial sketch. doi: 10.1080/23273798.2015.1047459, Irwing, P., Hamza, A., Khaleefa, O., and Lynn, R. (2008). Besides, Wang et al. Front. Regarding effects of AMC training on the phonological loop, several early studies have consistently reported that AMC experts exhibited higher digit spans than non-experts (Hatano and Osawa, 1983; Hatta et al., 1989; Tanaka et al., 2002). What one intelligence test measures: a theoretical account of the processing in the Raven progressive matrices test. The ability to efficiently process numerical magnitudes has long been considered as a cognitive foundation for the development of complex mathematics including arithmetic ability (Holloway and Ansari, 2009; Bartelet et al., 2014). The first fMRI scanning was conducted at that time. This result is consistent with the findings by Wang et al. Individual differences in working memory and processing speed predict anticipatory spoken language processing in the visual world. Women benefit more than men in response to college-based meditation training. Thanks a ton! During this process, the eyes send a visual to the brain, placing a picture of the Soroban in their mind. doi: 10.1126/science.1155466. And she answered them all correctly Good job! It remains unclear whether AMC training is helpful for special populations. Does your child need a boost of confidence in math? Importantly, using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), Li et al. doi: 10.1037/0012-1649.23.6.832, Hatano, G., Miyake, Y., and Binks, M. G. (1977). For instance, Lee et al. (2019) also found positive effects of AMC training on visuospatial n-back performance when using an active control group, indicating that the transfer effect on memory updating can go beyond placebo effects. doi: 10.1002/acp.2350030104, Holloway, I. D., and Ansari, D. (2009). Influence of neuroticism and conscientiousness on working memory training outcome. Although the findings may be suggestive of a possible link between AMC training and cognitive ability, such designs cannot rule out confounds from pre-existing differences and do not allow causal inferences to be drawn. Indian J. Physiol. Of particularly, mathematics at early period has been found to predict ones future developmental outcomes including academic success (Hafer et al., 2002), career aspirations (Shapka et al., 2006) and economic incomes (Joensen and Nielsen, 2009). 3, 313. The effects of long-term abacus training on topological properties of brain functional networks. The Japanese use the pathways of reading, listening, and flash anzan, to achieve this mental prowess. The impact of UCMAS training program on potentiating cognitive capacity among 9-12 year-old primary schoolers in shiraz. Curr. Additionally, a positive correlation between forward letter span and bilateral parietal functional connectivity was found in the AMC group at post-training session, but not in the controls. However, given that only a Raven test was utilized in prior AMC research to address potential far transfer (Irwing et al., 2008; Wang et al., 2019), further study is warranted. Improves understanding of arithmetic. Working memory? Several studies examined the processing mechanism of AMC and found that arithmetic performance of non-experts were highly disrupted by verbal distractors, while arithmetic performance of AMC experts was less affected by verbal distractors and much more affected by visuospatial distractors (Hatano et al., 1977; Frank and Barner, 2012). Enhanced functional connectivity and increased gray matter volume of insula related to action video game playing. 32, 1021. Although the activation differences could be explained by the employment of different behavioral strategies for the two groups, pre-training individual differences might have affected the results. Abacus Mental Math is a must-have tool for every child. It doesn't have to be that way for our children. 23, 920. On methodological standards in training and transfer experiments. These processes may improve the capabilities of information transmission and processing of these visual-related brain areas in the whole functional brain network and in turn facilitate mathematical performance. They found that AMC-trained children performed better than the control children not only on arithmetic computation problems, but also on visuospatial mathematical problems solving. (2016) found that 20 days of AMC training on young adults not only led to activation decreases in frontal-parietal regions but also led to decreases in the occipitotemporal junction during a visuospatial working memory task. Here, findings from previous behavioral and neuroimaging studies about AMC experts as well as children and adults receiving AMC training are reviewed and discussed. Research on the impacts of cognitive training on cognition and brain systems has long been of great interest to cognitive neuroscientists over the last decades. Nat. A previous study by Irwing et al. Increases MEMORY, FOCUS, listening skills, imagination, creativity. Abacus in the brain: a longitudinal functional MRI study of a skilled abacus user with a right hemispheric lesion. Basic numerical skills in children with mathematics learning disabilities: a comparison of symbolic vs non-symbolic number magnitude processing. (2017) examined effects of AMC training on resting-state network properties across the whole brain, and found that children with 1 year AMC training showed higher local efficiency or nodal degree in the right fusiform gyrus and bilateral superior occipital gyrus that are thought to be the primary neural substrates of visual processing. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.10.051, Na, K. S., Lee, S. I., Park, J. H., Jung, H. Y., and Ryu, J. H. (2015). (2011) separately reported that children with 1 year AMC training performed better than their peers on different visuospatial memory span tests. To date, although many studies have shown that cognitive training can improve performance in a variety of cognitive tasks (Diamond and Lee, 2011; Au et al., 2015; Benz et al., 2016), many other fail to replicate these positive effects, especially when it comes to improving domain-general cognitive abilities (far transfer) (Redick et al., 2013; Melby-Lervg et al., 2016; Sala and Gobet, 2019). Of particularly, regarding the far transfer to fluid intelligence, existing evidence from many recent cognitive training studies (Redick et al., 2013; Thompson et al., 2013; Melby-Lervg et al., 2016; Sala and Gobet, 2019), including AMC findings in the study of Wang et al. doi: 10.1177/0963721417712760, Sala, G., and Gobet, F. (2019). During the training, students are first instructed to memorize the verbal principles of abacus operations; then they are trained to perform calculations by operating beads on a physical abacus; after long-term practice, they can get rid of the use of a physical abacus and learn to manipulate imaginary abacus beads in their minds by moving fingers in the air; finally, they are able to perform AMC as fast as possible without actual finger movements. Working memory is a multi-component system that supports the online storage and manipulation of task-relevant information. Kane, M. J., Kwapil, T. R., Mcvay, J. C., and Myin-germeys, I. 45, 694696. (2007). doi: 10.1177/001440296403100103, Primi, R., Ferro, M. E., and Almeida, L. S. (2010). Training and plasticity of working memory. WHOLE -BRAIN training. Interventions shown to aid executive function development in children 4 to 12 years old. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2019.04.001, Keywords: abacus-based mental calculation, cognitive training, visuospatial processing, cognitive transfer, neuroplasticity, Citation: Wang C (2020) A Review of the Effects of Abacus Training on Cognitive Functions and Neural Systems in Humans. Knowledge is still lacking regarding effects of AMC training on large-scale brain networks that may indicate massive changes in brain systems. Sci. Interestingly, after 20 days of AMC training, the average functional connectivity strength within the three brain regions were increased significantly in the AMC group while it remained stable in the controls, suggesting that AMC training may enhance the spontaneous communication within the frontal-parietal network. (2006) conducted a longitudinal study in which 100 primary school students received either 2 years AMC training or similar amounts of additional standard math learning. Functioning of this storage system is often assessed by simple span tests. J. Neurosci. In the words of our beloved mathematician: THERE IS A GENIUS IN ALL OF US. Eur. rTMS evidence of different delay and decision processes in a fronto-parietal neuronal network activated during spatial working memory. (2015). Fair, D. A., Dosenbach, N. U. F., Church, J. The impact of abacus training on working memory and underlying neural correlates in young adults. As pointed out in the introduction, AMC is an overlearned mental arithmetic skill based on manipulating beads on an imaginary abacus. 16, 65046512. -Albert Einstein. The same way your brain can create a picture of a blue elephant chasing a white mouse, our students create a mental image of the abacus. Although single imaging method can detect potentially important variations in the brain, each imaging modality has its own technical or physiological limits. (2013) argue that numbers may be transformed into a super-modal form of an imaginary abacus through the visual cortical areas especially the fusiform gyrus and then transmitted to high-order brain regions such as the frontal-parietal network for AMC operations. Moreover, a mediation analysis showed that individual numerical magnitude processing partially mediated the group difference in arithmetic performance. For instance, in a previous study of Wang et al. 87, 11461158. All these studies indicate that AMC training may exert a transfer effect to the visuospatial sketchpad. The Japanese abacus as a computational aid for blind children. Rep. 7:8862. 23, 832838.
doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2008.04.001. Gissoni, F. L. (1963). Future studies should also consider whether and how these factors would mediate AMC training outcomes. Child Psychol. Front. Besides, the training can result in functional and anatomical neural changes that are largely located within the frontal-parietal and occipital-temporal brain regions. The visuospatial sketchpad refers to temporary storage of visual and spatial information. doi: 10.1007/s00426-013-0535-3. Numerical processing efficiency improved in experienced mental abacus children. Cogn. 38, 52345249. Several studies confirmed this hypothesis. All these studies indicate that AMC operations activate a bilateral frontal-parietal network that serves as the core substrate of visuospatial working memory, while conventional calculations rely on a language-related brain network including the Brocas area. Additionally, local efficiency of the fusiform gyrus was found positively correlated with mathematical performance in AMC-trained children but not in the controls. *Correspondence: Chunjie Wang, cjwang@hznu.edu.cn, Fundamentals of 21st Century Neuroscience, View all
Engel, S. A., Rumelhart, D. E., Wandell, B.
doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2013.08.010, Becker, C., and Kalina, K. (1975). Hafer, G. H., College-meramec, S. L. C., Hafer, R. W., and Illinois, S. (2002). 18, 614621. Does far transfer exist? Evaluation of memory in Abacus learners. 2013:694075. Mathematics has been considered as one of the most basic cognitive skills in numerate societies. First, experimental designs should be optimized in future AMC studies. Therefore, this review study aims to provide an updated overview of the published works in this field to discuss the impacts of AMC training on cognitive functions and neural systems in humans, and to provide implications for future research. Moreover, using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), Hu et al. Natl. Moreover, long-term AMC training has been reported to produce structural and functional changes in the occipital-temporal regions that may explain training-induced cognitive benefits (Hu et al., 2011; Li et al., 2013; Weng et al., 2017; Zhou et al., 2019). Although AMC training is not originally designed as a working memory training program, many researchers argue that the operational processes of AMC involve multiple components of working memory and may thus exert a transfer effect (Lee et al., 2007; Dong et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2019; Zhou et al., 2020). Neurosci. Similarly, child experts in AMC were reported to outperform their peers in various arithmetic computation problems (Stigler, 1984; Stigler et al., 1986; Amaiwa and Hatano, 1989; Chen et al., 2006). 6 months after her stroke, she reported that, although her knowledge of basic arithmetic facts and related operations of a physical abacus were intact, she could not use the visuospatial imaginary strategy for either mental arithmetic or digit memory. Investigation of this question would bring us a better understanding of the effects of AMC training. Source Am. This study found that activation of the frontal-parietal network during a mental-set shifting task decreased significantly in the AMC-trained children, while activation in similar brain regions increased in the controls. An increasing number of neuroimaging studies have suggested the notion that cognitive training can result in substantial changes in functional activity and structure of the brain, which may contribute to cognitive benefits in the trained and untrained tasks (Klingberg, 2010; Gong et al., 2015; Benz et al., 2016; Sohn et al., 2017). Further research with longitudinal designs and active control groups is needed to validate these findings. One heaven bead represents a value of five when it is pushed down, and one earth bead represents a value of one when it is pushed up. For instance, in contrast to extensive AMC studies examining the neural correlates of mathematics and working memory, relatively few AMC studies have examined neural underpins of numerical magnitude processing efficiency. It provides a framework to support a wide range of cognitive activities such as language processing, problem solving and mathematics (Kane et al., 2007; Alloway and Alloway, 2010; Huettig and Janse, 2015). Psychol. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2012.02.012, Tanaka, S., Michimata, C., Kaminaga, T., Honda, M., and Sadato, N. (2002). We believe that when children are engaged, learning is fostered. 29, 13181324. (2013) designed a numerical Stroop paradigm and found that compared to the controls, children with 3 years of AMC training were less affected by physical size information when they processed numerical magnitude information intentionally, while they were more affected by numerical magnitude information when they processed physical size information intentionally. During AMC training, students are usually instructed to memorize the verbal principles of abacus operations before they learn to perform calculations by manipulating a physical abacus. (2008) conducted an AMC training program in a large sample of 3185 children between 7 and 11 years. 6:2023. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2015.02023. Then a second fMRI session was conducted. Moreover, all the above cognitive training programs have been reported to produce functional and structural changes in the brain that may provide a neurophysiological basis for the cognitive transfer (Klingberg, 2010; Gong et al., 2015; Benz et al., 2016; Sohn et al., 2017). Working memory training does not improve performance on measures of intelligence or other measures of far transfer evidence from a meta-analytic review. It is possible that a deeper understanding of numerical magnitudes endows AMC users with greater efficiency in accessing numerical magnitude from number systems both intentionally and automatically. Neuroreport 13, 21872191. Neural correlates underlying mental calculation in abacus experts: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Digit memory of soroban experts: Evidence of utilization of mental imagery. Holmes, J., Gathercole, S. E., and Dunning, D. L. (2009). Annu. Neurobiology of intelligence: science and ethics. Dir. Bhaskaran, M., Sengottaiyan, A., Madhu, S., and Ranganathan, V. (2006). The result 778984 is represented by both the white and gray beads. (2020). Neurosci. doi: 10.1002/hbm.23728, Wang, C., Xu, T., Geng, F., Hu, Y., Wang, Y., Liu, H., et al. These findings are consistent with early psychological studies (Hatano and Osawa, 1983; Stigler, 1984; Hatano et al., 1987), suggesting that a visuospatial imaginary strategy has been developed by AMC training. Effect of mental abacus training on working memory for children. Rev. In summary, our review suggests that AMC training has the potential to improve cognitive abilities including mathematics, working memory and numerical magnitude processing. U.S.A. 92, 81358139. Hanakawa, T., Honda, M., Okada, T., Fukuyama, H., and Shibasaki, H. (2003). Children skilled in mental abacus show enhanced non-symbolic number sense. The authors concluded that the arithmetic advantages of AMC users were likely attributed to the implementation of a visuospatial imaginary strategy. Mapping numerical magnitudes onto symbols: the numerical distance effect and individual differences in childrens mathematics achievement. Enhances FASTER mental math skills. Training improves multitasking performance by increasing the speed of information processing in human prefrontal cortex. Neuroimage 206:116334. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116334, Wang, C., Weng, J., Yao, Y., Dong, S., Liu, Y., and Chen, F. (2017). Flash Anzan: Anzan, which means mental math in Japanese, is practiced both with listening and flash. Child Psychol. Object-related activity revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging in human occipital cortex. This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province BK20190937, Natural Science Foundation for Universities of Jiangsu Province 19KJB19005, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation 2018M630655, and the Starting Research Fund from Hangzhou Normal University (No. (2019) found that experienced AMC children (more than 3 years AMC training) showed an advantage over novices (less than half year AMC training) on three different visuospatial span tests. 31, 8093. (2013). PLoS One 7:e36410. Blind. However, no research has compared the effects of AMC and musical training on cognitive functions. Psychol. Front.
Thus, AMC training may be another example of cognitive training that shows benefits only in tasks tightly related to the trained tasks (near transfer). Fluid intelligence as a predictor of learning: A longitudinal multilevel approach applied to math. Preliminary evidence that allelic variation in the LMX1A gene influences training-related working memory improvement. doi: 10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100422, Barner, D., Alvarez, G., Sullivan, J., Brooks, N., Srinivasan, M., and Frank, M. C. (2016).
Giedd, J. N. (2004). Psychol. Core information processing deficits in developmental dyscalculia and low numeracy. doi: 10.4306/pi.2014.11.2.143, Klingberg, T. (2010). Available online at: https://arxiv.org/abs/1904.07589 (accessed April 16, 2019). Interestingly, we have noticed that AMC relies on the bilateral frontalparietal regions that serves as the core substrate of visuospatial working memory (Hanakawa et al., 2003), while music recruits many brain regions related to phonological working memory and language processing (Koelsch et al., 2002). Pers. Thirteen months after her stroke, she reported that she was able to shift the mental arithmetic strategy from linguistic to visuospatial representations, and her superior capacity for digit memory recovered. Comput. Empower your child with Abacus Mental Math! I was having lunch with my daughter at her school when a different homeroom teacher came up and praised our daughter for winning her class math contest. Numerical processing efficiency improved in children using mental abacus: ERP evidence utilizing a numerical Stroop task.
138, 628654. The findings have been replicated by a recent study with a larger sample size (Weng et al., 2017). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. doi: 10.1086/443862, Strobach, T., Frensch, P. A., and Schubert, T. (2012). (2011) found that children with 3 years AMC training performed better than their peers in both digit and letter forward spans, indicating that the AMC training effects on phonological loop may be not limited to numerical information. Deficits in numerical magnitude processing are often observed in individuals with mathematical learning disabilities (Rousselle and Nol, 2007). Cogn. Biomed. After training, she kept using AMC in everyday activities, and became a finalist at a domestic abacus competition.
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