Mental arithmetic – how we solve arithmetic problems

In children, the semantically elaborated arithmetic reasoning activated a fronto-parietal network. However, retrieval of acquired arithmetic facts recruited hippocampal areas to a larger extent than previously observed in adults. Working memory, for example, may drive both good performance in mental rotation or other transformation processes and mental arithmetic. Numerous functional neuroimaging studies have shown overlapping networks for language and arithmetic: Beyond obvious overlap in occipital areas that are associated with visual input, overlap was observed in regions like the inferior frontal, angular, and supramarginal gyrus and surrounding regions. A number of recent findings are in line with the idea that shifts of spatial attention substantially contribute to mental arithmetic. A straightforward test for a causal – rather than an epiphenomenal – role of spatial attention for mental arithmetic would be to find that patients suffering from attentional deficits would be specifically impaired in mental arithmetic.