Question: What is the best experimental method for researching effects that maths has on the brain?

Alex Baxendale answered on 26 Nov 2021:

It really depends on what you want to look for. If you’re looking for the biological effects then I would recommend fMRI so that you can see which areas are activating whilst doing math. EEG can also be useful to figure out what kind of time frame is involved in the processing as it can detect the millisecond changes in brainwaves. Methods like TMS or tDCS wouldn’t be the best, or most common as they can be quite difficult to get the right spots.

If you’re interested in behavioural processes in math processing then looking into the differences between people with problems like Dyscalculia (which is number dyslexia) or other learning difficulties can be useful to see what kind of changes can occur naturally. Perhaps brain damage (such as stroke) patients could be useful if you can find people with specific math-related impairment, but that might be difficult to find.

In my research I use a bunch of different cognitive tests to find out what sort of capabilities people have, and then test them on some difficult math. We tend to define ‘difficult’ math as equations that are actually fairly easy. Something like 84 + 67 would be classed as a hard sum, provided you put people under a time pressure, whereas easy sums could be something like 21 + 34.

In terms of which methods are best, it really depends on what you’re looking for. We can’t really combine everything together so it’s about picking the right tools for the job. All of them have big weaknesses which might be a deal breaker. For example fMRI has a really poor time frame, the bits of the brain you see light up are over a few seconds, whereas EEG has millisecond accuracy, however EEG can’t detect activity in a 1cm x 1cm square, so it has poor resolution (which fMRI doesn’t have). So it can be tough to decide!

I hope this answers your question!