• Neuroscience · Nov 2018

    The Neurochemistry of Mathematical Genius: Reduced Frontal Excitation/Inhibition Balance in an Expert Calculator.

    • Beatrix Krause, Chung Yen Looi, Martin Dresler, and Kadosh Roi Cohen RC Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, 15 South Parks Road, OX1 3AQ Oxford, UK..
    • Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, 15 South Parks Road, OX1 3AQ Oxford, UK. Electronic address: BKrause@ucla.edu.
    • Neuroscience. 2018 Nov 10; 392: 252-257.

    AbstractAlterations in excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters (glutamate and GABA, respectively) have been found in various neuropsychiatric disorders, but have not been examined in individuals with prodigious cognitive abilities. Understanding exceptional brain processing is critical for developing biomedical interventions for cognitive and neurodevelopmental atypicalities. We tested the 11-fold world champion in mental calculation, G.M., and compared his right middle frontal gyrus, which has been associated with mathematical prodigy, to four healthy control expert calculators, who were not prodigies. We found substantially lower frontal glutamate/GABA compared to non-prodigy controls, but not glutamate or GABA individually, measured with magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We suggest that prefrontal glutamate/GABA is a potential marker of extraordinary cognitive skills.Copyright © 2018 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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