In order to look at this question of whether differences in white matter are related to differences in math abilities, some researchers in our laboratory measured white matter in children aged 7–9. The children also completed two math tests. The first test involved solving simple arithmetic problems like adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. The second test included more complex math questions such as identifying patterns and interpreting graphs. The researchers were then able to take the FA values from different white matter tracts in each child's brain, to see if the strength of those tracts were related to performance on the math tests. Two white matter tracts seemed to be important in predicting how well the children performed on these math tests: a tract called the SCR and another tract called the ILF. The SCR is a tract that goes from the bottom of your brain to the top, and the ILF is a tract that goes from the front to the back of your brain. In other words, children who had stronger connections in these tracts (had FA values closer to 1) also did better on the math tests!

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