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In this project, we combine novel behavioral tasks with functional MRI to investigate how information on numbers and quantities is represented in the brain of healthy adolescents and in adolescents with dyscalculia, a developmental disorder that affects math skills. We then test and compare their risk-taking behavior in a task involving financial decisions.
Research project ongoing. Do you wish to participate? See our information below.
Dyscalculia is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that majorly affects numerical competence and thereby life success and well-being of the affected individuals. Despite the prevalence and importance of this disorder, we know very little about its neural origins and exact behavioral consequences. Here, we employ a combination of novel experimental tasks, behavioral modelling, and sophisticated fMRI approaches, to investigate the precision with which the brains of adolescents diagnosed with dyscalculia represent abstract magnitude information, and how this affects their risk-taking behavior in financial decisions with real-life consequences. Thus, our project provides important knowledge about disrupted brain mechanisms in dyscalculia and how these may contribute to everyday behavioral problems.
This project links learning behavior to neural circuit function to eventually advance developmental delay diagnosis and to design innovative treatment strategies. We will generate mechanistic insight into the specific neural dysfunction in dyscalculia, investigate some real-life behavioral consequences, and directly pave the way for novel diagnostic and therapeutic measures like behavioral assays and brain stimulation. Moreover, the project closely interacts with the HDDA-platform of our URPP to further develop the software DataSpace.
We are currently looking for participants between 15 and 23 years of age without (control group) or with dyscalculia. The visit at our lab in the University Hospital Zurich lasts about 3.5 hours and includes an MRI scan. For more information or registration, please contact us.
Principal investigators: Christian Ruff, Karin Kucian, Silvia Brem
Postdoc: Gilles de Hollander
PhD student: Maike Renkert
Barretto-García M, de Hollander G, Grueschow M, Polanía R, Woodford M, Ruff CC (2023) Individual risk attitudes arise from noise in neurocognitive magnitude representations Nature Human Behavior
Underlined: AdaBD researchers
