5/29/2017 WhatYourBrainLooksLikeWhenItSolvesaMathProblemTheNewYorkTimes

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SCIENCE

WhatYourBrainLooksLikeWhenIt
SolvesaMathProblem
Trilobites

ByBENEDICTCAREY JULY28,2016

Solvingahairymathproblemmightsendashudderofexultationalongyourspinal
cord.Butscientistshavehistoricallystruggledtodeconstructtheexactmental
alchemythatoccurswhenthebrainsuccessfullyleapsthegapfromSaywhat?to
Aha!

Now,usinganinnovativecombinationofbrainimaginganalyses,researchers
havecapturedfourfleetingstagesofcreativethinkinginmath.Inapaperpublished
inPsychologicalScience,ateamledbyJohnR.Anderson,aprofessorofpsychology
andcomputerscienceatCarnegieMellonUniversity,demonstratedamethodfor
reconstructinghowthebrainmovesfromunderstandingaproblemtosolvingit,
includingthetimethebrainspendsineachstage.

Theimaginganalysisfoundfourstagesinall:encoding(downloading),planning
(strategizing),solving(performingthemath),andresponding(typingoutan
answer).

Imveryhappywiththewaythestudyworkedout,andIthinkthisprecisionis
aboutthelimitofwhatwecandowiththebrainimagingtoolsavailable,saidDr.
Anderson,whowrotethereportwithArynA.PykeandJonM.Fincham,bothalsoat
5CarnegieMellon.
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5/29/2017 WhatYourBrainLooksLikeWhenItSolvesaMathProblemTheNewYorkTimes

Tocapturethesequicksilvermentaloperations,theteamfirsttaught80men
andwomenhowtointerpretasetofmathsymbolsandequationstheyhadnotseen
before.Theunderlyingmathitselfwasntdifficult,mostlyadditionandsubtraction,
butmanipulatingthenewlylearnedsymbolsrequiredsomethinking.Theresearch
teamcouldvarytheproblemstoburdenspecificstagesofthethinkingprocess
somewerehardtoencode,forinstance,whileothersextendedthelengthofthe
planningstage.

ThescientistsusedtwotechniquesofM.R.I.dataanalysistosortthroughwhat
theparticipantsbrainsweredoing.Onetechniquetrackedtheneuralfiringpatterns
duringthesolvingofeachproblemtheotheridentifiedsignificantshiftsfromone
kindofmentalstatetoanother.Thesubjectssolved88problemseach,andthe
researchteamanalyzedtheimagingdatafromthosesolvedsuccessfully.

Theanalysisfoundfourseparatestagesthat,dependingontheproblem,varied
inlengthbyasecondormore.Forinstance,planningtookupmoretimethanthe
otherstageswhenacleverworkaroundwasrequired.Thesamestagesarelikely
applicabletosolvingmanycreativeproblems,notjustinmath.Butknowinghow
theyplayoutinthebrainshouldhelpindesigningcurriculums,especiallyin
mathematics,thepapersuggests.

Wedidntknowexactlywhatstudentsweredoingwhentheysolvedproblems,
saidDr.Anderson,whoselabdesignsmathinstructionsoftware.Havingaclearer
understandingofthatwillhelpusdevelopbetterinstructionIthinkthatsthefirst
placethisworkwillhavesomeimpact.

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AversionofthisarticleappearsinprintonAugust2,2016,onPageD2oftheNewYorkeditionwiththe
headline:Neuroscience:YourBrainonMath.

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