Glutamate and GABA: What Could These Neurotransmitters Say About Your Math Abilities?

The ability to solve mathematical problems helps us improve our analytical and reasoning skills. It is the levels of neurotransmitters that predict our math abilities, found a new study. Neurotransmitters are the chemical molecules that transmit messages between nerve cells and muscles. Previous studies have shown that two neurotransmitters, namely glutamate and gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), play an essential role in shaping our brains in response to growth and learning .

In the current study, the researchers from the University of Oxford enrolled 255 people ranging from six-year-olds to university students. They conducted two math achievement tests for the participants and correlated the test results with their GABA and glutamate levels.

The results showed that the higher the GABA levels in young people more remarkable were their math abilities. In contrast, lower glutamate levels seemed to be associated with poorer math abilities in this population.

The effects of these neurotransmitters were exactly the opposite in adults, as higher GABA levels and lower glutamate levels were associated with poorer and greater math abilities, respectively .

As the participants got tested twice, about 1.5 years apart, the study team was confident to show that neurotransmitter levels at the time of the first test could predict math achievement at a later date.

Roi Cohen Kadosh, the lead investigator of the study, said, "Our finding of developmental switches in the link between GABA and glutamate and academic achievement highlights a general, unknown principle of plasticity. Our findings also have important implications for the development of brain-based interventional programs, which we hope to examine in the future."

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The findings were published in the journal PLOS Biology .

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Source-Medindia