© Christian ChanHow your brain processes complex mathematical problems is very different from how it processes language.
Albert Einstein once said that his mathematical genius had nothing to do with language: "Words and language, whether written or spoken, do not seem to play any part in my thought processes."
And now high-definition brain scans prove he had a point.
The ways that the brain processes language and complex mathematical concepts are quite different, according to a new study.The notion that humans first developed mathematical abilities as an offshoot of early forms of language has been a long-standing hypothesis, according to the study authors. And some studies have suggested that the way the brain wrangles abstract math concepts has more in common
with language processing than it does with simple number recognition and formula computing.
But this idea has opponents — including many mathematicians, the researchers noted — who argue that understanding complex math involves perception pathways that differ greatly from those that untangle words.
To find out which idea held true, researchers turned to a type of noninvasive scan called fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), which creates high-resolution images that can map changes in neural activity triggered by blood flow. In that way, researchers would be able to see which parts of the brain lit up during different types of tasks.
For the experiments in the study, the scientists selected 15 subjects who were trained mathematicians and 15 subjects who were well educated but did not specialize in math. The researchers posed a series of statements to each subject on a range of topics — math and nonmath — which participants were asked to identify as "true," "false" or "meaningless."
Comment: The information in the article speaks to the benefits of a more active type of thinking and remembering. Modern life, technology, entertainment, etc., have gotten people out of the habit of using their brains actively in favour of a more passive mode. The brain is like a muscle: the more you use it, the more it can do.