Math Skills Come from Strong Brain Wiring

Having or not having skills in solving math problems may be something entirely out of your control, a new study by experts at the University of Texas in Dallas indicate. They say that those who are naturally good at math tend to show a certain type of neural wiring.

Experts use this term to refer to the strength and capabilities of synapses connecting neurons in various areas of brain. All regions communicate with each other, but some people are lucky enough to have stronger connections, PsychCentral reports.

Particularly, the strength of communications between the left and right hemispheres was found to be of great importance in dictating people's ability to do math. However, the investigation only took into account basic arithmetic problem-solving skills.

“Our results suggest that subtraction performance is optimal when there is high coherence in the neural activity in these two brain [hemispheres]. Two brain areas working together rather than either region alone appears to be key,” study coauthor Denise C. Park, PhD, explains.