Neurocognitive characteristics of mathematically gifted children and educational suggestions
QIAO Xinhong1, BI Jia1, ZHOU Jiaxian2
1. School of Education, Shanghai Sanda University, Shanghai 201209, China; 2. Department of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Education, Center for Educational Neuroscience, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
Abstract：Mathematically gifted children refer to those who have excellent ability and performance in mathematics. Compared with ordinary children, the right hemisphere of mathematically gifted children is more active, which enables them to have higher level cognitive ability. The right hemisphere is dominant in geometry and visual spatial analysis, and is highly involved in mathematical reasoning and creative processing. The interaction between the two hemispheres of the brain is enhanced, so the information can be processed efficiently without paying high processing cost, so that the individual can complete mathematical tasks faster and more accurately. The enhancement of fronto-parietal network and its bilateral processing mechanism enables gifted children to quickly and efficiently process and integrate various information from the frontal and parietal lobes in the left and right hemispheres, which makes their speed and accuracy in processing mathematical information much higher than that of ordinary children. At the same time, the fronto-parietal network is not only related to higher-order mathematical reasoning but also to creative thinking. Therefore, the mathematically gifted children are outstanding in the process of mathematical creative problem-solving and in the aspect of mathematical logical reasoning. Based on these neurocognitive characteristics, educators can recognize mathematically gifted children and design corresponding courses and teaching strategies for them.
