Abstract
As enhanced fronto-parietal network has been suggested to support reasoning ability of math-gifted adolescents, the main goal of this EEG source analysis is to investigate the temporal binding of the gamma-band (30–60 Hz) synchronization between frontal and parietal cortices in adolescents with exceptional mathematical ability, including the functional connectivity of gamma neurocognitive network, the temporal dynamics of fronto-parietal network (phase-locking durations and network lability in time domain), and the self-organized criticality of synchronizing oscillation. Compared with the average-ability subjects, the math-gifted adolescents show a highly integrated fronto-parietal network due to distant gamma phase-locking oscillations, which is indicated by lower modularity of the global network topology, more “connector bridges” between the frontal and parietal cortices and less “connector hubs” in the sensorimotor cortex. The time domain analysis finds that, while maintaining more stable phase dynamics of the fronto-parietal coupling, the math-gifted adolescents are characterized by more extensive fronto-parietal connection reconfiguration. The results from sample fitting in the power-law model further find that the phase-locking durations in the math-gifted brain abides by a wider interval of the power-law distribution. This phase-lock distribution mechanism could represent a relatively optimized pattern for the functional binding of frontal–parietal network, which underlies stable fronto-parietal connectivity and increases flexibility of timely network reconfiguration.
Highlights
In the fields of education and psychology, exceptional logical reasoning and visual-spatial imagery abilities are regarded as the main characteristics of mathematically gifted adolescents
Through EEG source analysis of the gamma cortical network, the present study aims to find the giftedness-related capacity of functional binding in the crucial fronto-parietal network of reasoning, by assessing the task-related functional connectivity and adaptive network reconfiguration
The paradigms used in the previous studies on math-gifted adolescents or children mostly involved visuospatial imagery tasks that were related to mathematical thinking ability, such as Raven Advanced Progressive Matrices (RAPM) test and mental rotation
Summary
In the fields of education and psychology, exceptional logical reasoning and visual-spatial imagery abilities are regarded as the main characteristics of mathematically gifted adolescents. The heightened“interplay” of anterior/posterior accompanied with the enhanced interhemispheric frontal connectivity, the extensive parietal activation and the bilateral fronto-parietal network have been suggested as the important neural mechanisms of the math-gifted brain (Singh and O’Boyle, 2004; O’Boyle et al, 2005; Lee et al, 2006; Prescott et al, 2010; Desco et al, 2011)
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