Evaluation of Mathematical Cognitive Functions with the Use of EEG Brain Imaging

During the last decades, the interest displayed in neurocognitive and brain science research is relatively high. In this chapter, the cognitive neuroscience field approach focuses in the aspect of the way that cognitive functions are produced by neural circuits in the brain. Within this frame, the effects of impairment to the brain and subsequent changes in the thought processes due to changes in neural circuitry resulting from the ensued damage are analyzed and evaluated. All cognitive functions result from the integration of many simple processing mechanisms, distributed throughout the brain. Brain cortex structures, linked with cognitive disorders, are located in several parts like the frontal, the parietal, the temporal, the occipital lobe and more are analyzed and specified. A critical topic of this chapter in the evaluation of brain operations is mapping regions that control cognitive and mathematical concepts functions. Dyscalculia, in this chapter, is described as a specific disorder of managing and conceiving mathematical concepts. Dyscalculia could be identified by difficulties in visual perception, in spatial number organization, in basic mathematical operations and in mathematical induction logic. Moreover, people who deal with dyscalculia present problems, in Euclidean and Non-Euclidean Geometry concepts perception, in Calculus aspects as well as in solving algorithmic problems where the design, the description and the application of algorithmic steps are required. In order to enhance cognitive brain functions perception, the use of EEG brain imaging is proposed measuring cerebral activity and event-related potentials. The procedure described in this chapter is about the comparison and contrasts EEG brain imaging patterns of healthy volunteers to EEG samples taken of adults considered being at risk of mathematics learning disabilities such as Dyscalculia and algorithmic thinking difficulties. EEG interpretation analysis is to follow where the deviation of a normal and an abnormal range of wave’s frequency are defined. Several Evaluation of Mathematical Cognitive Functions with the Use of EEG Brain Imaging