Neural Investigations of a Digital-game Based Intervention for Young Learners with Mathematical Developmental Variability

Developmental dyscalculia, a severe mathematics learning difficulty, its neural mechanisms, and effective intervention program remain unclear and under-investigated. Limited research has examined the neural changes following mathematics intervention in young children. This study aimed to investigate neural changes for both dyscalculia-at-risk (DR) and non-dyscalculia-at-risk (NDR) children after a digital game-based intervention, including changes in brain networks in terms of graph theory metrics and brain activation. The NDR children were randomly assigned to either the experimental group with intervention or the control group without intervention. Changes in brain activation were observed in the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS) during different arithmetic tasks. Increased IFG and IPS activations occurred during symbolic arithmetic processing for both DR and NDR intervention groups. Conversely, both intervention groups displayed decreased IFG activation during nonsymbolic arithmetic tasks. Without controlling for Total Reading, an interaction of time, task and group was significant as the intervention only significantly increased the IPS activation of the NDR experimental group in the symbolic task. However, controlling for Total Reading eliminated the group’s difference of the intervention effect, which could be postulated that the intervention effect on groups may be affected by their initial Total Reading abilities. In terms of brain network changes, the results showed that the NDR experimental group improved their neural integration, as evidenced by enhanced clustering coefficient and local efficiency. However, the DR group showed reduced local efficiency, possibly due to shifting brain network states, "maladaptive" neuroplasticity, and inadequate intervention dosage.