Scientists have developed a theory that those who struggle with arithmetic may actually have a math disability that’s similar to dyslexia.
In details, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center and Stanford University suggest that people who are bad at math may struggle to process numbers in the same part of the brain where dyslexic people struggle to process words. It stems from abnormalities in areas of the brain that support procedural memory; the memory system used for skills that don’t require conscious thought, such as walking, talking and riding a bike.
When you first learn a new skill like math, you use the declarative memory which is the part of the memory consciously stored and recalled, but once you’ve practiced it enough, it becomes automatized in your procedural memory.
‘Given that the development of math skills involves their automatization, it makes sense that the dysfunction of procedural memory could lead to math disability,’ says senior researcher Michael T. Ullman, PhD, professor of neurosciences at Georgetown.