The Semantic Network Supports Mathematical Processing

It has been established that the visuospatial network plays a key role in mathematical processing. Little research has been conducted to investigate the association between the general semantic network and mathematical processing. Our recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies on Chinese university students found that the semantic network is extensively activated during mathematical processing, including processing quantifiers, mathematical term, mathematical principles, approximate computation, algebraic expression, and even mathematical problems. The results suggest that the semantic network is another key brain network supporting mathematical processing. In this chapter, we introduce a series of recent findings on the involvement of the semantic network in mathematical processing, and explore the synergistic relations between the semantic and visuospatial networks for mathematical processing.