A new study, published this month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that within the same society, adolescent students who specifically lack mathematical education exhibited reduced levels of a neurotransmitter called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in a key brain area involved in reasoning and cognitive learning.
Zacharopoulos et al. examined whether the concentrations of GABA in the adolescent brain could classify whether a student is lacking mathematical education. Image credit: T.J. Evans.
Educational decisions have a long-lasting impact on both the individual and wider society.
Mathematical education and attainment has been associated with several quality-of-life indices, including educational progress, socioeconomic status, employment, mental and physical health, and financial stability.
In several countries, such as the United Kingdom and India, 16-year-old adolescents as part of their advanced subjects can choose to stop studying math. The consequences of not choosing math as an A-level subject can be significant.
When controlling for potential confounding factors such as socioeconomic status it emerged that the decision to not study math as an A-level subject can lead to an 11% decrease in financial income compared to those who choose to study math as part of their A-level curriculum. No other A-level subject category is associated with such a wage premium.
“Maths skills are associated with a range of benefits, including employment, socioeconomic status, and mental and physical health,” said Professor Roi Cohen Kadosh, a researcher at the University of Oxford.
“Adolescence is an important period in life that is associated with important brain and cognitive changes.”
“Sadly, the opportunity to stop studying maths at this age seems to lead to a gap between adolescents who stop their maths education compared to those who continue it.”
“Our study provides a new level of biological understanding of the impact of education on the developing brain and the mutual effect between biology and education.”
The study involved 133 students from the United Kingdom between the ages of 14-18.
The researchers found that the participants who didn’t study maths had a lower amount of GABA in the middle frontal gyrus, a key brain region involved in many important cognitive functions.
Based on the amount of this chemical found in each student, the scientists were able to discriminate between adolescents who studied or did not study maths, independent of their cognitive abilities.
Moreover, the amount of GABA successfully predicted changes in mathematical attainment score around 19 months later.
Notably, the authors did not find differences in the brain chemical before the adolescents stopped studying maths.
“It is not yet known how this disparity, or its long-term implications, can be prevented,” Professor Kadosh said.
“Not every adolescent enjoys maths so we need to investigate possible alternatives, such as training in logic and reasoning that engage the same brain area as maths.”
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George Zacharopoulos et al. 2021. The impact of a lack of mathematical education on brain development and future attainment. PNAS 118 (24): e2013155118; doi: 10.1073/pnas.2013155118
