Editing Child prodigy (section)

==Memory capacity of prodigies==
[[Positron emission tomography|PET scans]] performed on several mathematics prodigies have suggested that they think in terms of{{Clarify|date=October 2024}} long-term working memory (LTWM).<ref name=Butterworth2001>{{cite journal |last1=Butterworth |first1=Brian |title=What makes a prodigy? |journal=Nature Neuroscience |date=January 2001 |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=11–12 |doi=10.1038/82841 |pmid=11135636 |s2cid=14967746 }}</ref>  This [[memory]], specific to a field of expertise,{{Clarify|date=October 2024}} is capable of holding relevant information for extended periods, usually hours.  For example, experienced waiters have been found to hold the orders of up to twenty customers in their heads while they serve them, but perform only as well as an average person in number-sequence recognition.  The PET scans also answer questions about which specific areas of the brain associate themselves with manipulating numbers.<ref name=Butterworth2001/>

One subject{{who|date=July 2024}} never excelled as a child in mathematics, but he taught himself algorithms and tricks for calculatory speed, becoming capable of extremely complex mental math. His brain, compared to six other controls, was studied using the PET scan, revealing separate areas of his brain that he manipulated to solve complex problems. Some of the areas that he and presumably prodigies use are brain sectors dealing in visual and spatial memory, as well as visual [[mental image]]ry. Other areas of the brain showed use by the subject, including a sector of the brain generally related to childlike "finger counting", probably used in his mind to relate numbers to the [[visual cortex]].<ref name=Butterworth2001/>

This finding is consistent with the introspective report of this{{Which|date=October 2024}} calculating prodigy, which states that he used visual images to encode and retrieve numerical information in LTWM. Compared to [[short-term memory]] strategies, used by normal people on complex mathematical problems, encoding and retrieval [[episodic memory]] strategies would be more efficient. The prodigy may switch between these two strategies, which reduce the storage retrieval times of long-term memory and circumvent the limited capacities of short-term memory. In turn, they can encode and retrieve specific information (e.g., the intermediate answers during the calculation) in the long-term working memory more accurately and effectively.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pesenti |first1=Mauro |last2=Zago |first2=Laure |last3=Crivello |first3=Fabrice |last4=Mellet |first4=Emmanuel |last5=Samson |first5=Dana |last6=Duroux |first6=Bruno |last7=Seron |first7=Xavier |last8=Mazoyer |first8=Bernard |last9=Tzourio-Mazoyer |first9=Nathalie |date=January 2001 |title=Mental calculation in a prodigy is sustained by right prefrontal and medial temporal areas |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nn0101_103 |journal=Nature Neuroscience |language=en |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=103–107 |doi=10.1038/82831 |pmid=11135652 |issn=1546-1726|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Similar strategies were found among prodigies mastering [[Mental abacus|mental abacus calculation]]. The positions of beads on the physical [[abacus]] act as visual proxies of each digit for prodigies to solve complex computations. This one-to-one corresponding structure allows them to rapidly encode and retrieve digits in the long-term working memory during the calculation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ericsson |first1=K. Anders |last2=Kintsch |first2=Walter |date=1995 |title=Long-term working memory. |url=https://doi.apa.org/doi/10.1037/0033-295X.102.2.211 |journal=Psychological Review |language=en |volume=102 |issue=2 |pages=211–245 |doi=10.1037/0033-295X.102.2.211 |pmid=7740089 |issn=1939-1471|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The [[Functional magnetic resonance imaging|fMRI]] scans showed stronger activation of brain areas related to visual processing for Chinese children being trained with abacus mental compared to control groups. This may indicate a greater demand for visuospatial information processing and visual-motor imagination in abacus mental calculation. Additionally, the right middle frontal gyrus activation is suggested to be the neuroanatomical link between prodigies' abacus mental calculation and the visuospatial working memory.  This activation serves a mediation effect on the correlation between abacus-based mental calculation and [[Visuospatial function|visuospatial working memory]]. A training-induced [[neuroplasticity]] regarding working memory performance for children is proposed.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Chunjie |last2=Xu |first2=Tianyong |last3=Geng |first3=Fengji |last4=Hu |first4=Yuzheng |last5=Wang |first5=Yunqi |last6=Liu |first6=Huafeng |last7=Chen |first7=Feiyan |date=2019-08-14 |title=Training on Abacus-Based Mental Calculation Enhances Visuospatial Working Memory in Children |journal=The Journal of Neuroscience |language=en |volume=39 |issue=33 |pages=6439–6448 |doi=10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3195-18.2019 |issn=0270-6474 |pmc=6697396 |pmid=31209171}}</ref> A study examining German calculating prodigies also proposed a similar reason for exceptional calculation abilities. Excellent working memory capacities and neuroplastic changes brought by extensive practice would be essential to enhance this domain-specific skill.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Fehr |first1=Thorsten |last2=Weber |first2=Jochen |last3=Willmes |first3=Klaus |last4=Herrmann |first4=Manfred |date=April 2010 |title=Neural correlates in exceptional mental arithmetic—About the neural architecture of prodigious skills |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0028393210000084 |journal=Neuropsychologia |language=en |volume=48 |issue=5 |pages=1407–1416 |doi=10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.01.007|pmid=20079753 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>