25 examples of research with impact: Understanding human thinking

17.10.2024

As the FNR marks 25 years since its creation, we highlight 25 examples of FNR-supported research with impact.

Since returning to Luxembourg in 2003, Christine Schiltz has led a team working to understand human thinking, especially numerical and mathematical thinking, and how it is implemented in the brain – especially in a multilingual setting.

How do humans think, and how is it developing? How do we think about numbers, and how do we use them to calculate? How do we read?

The research of Christine Schiltz and her research group at the University of Luxembourg revolves around these questions: Understanding how humans develop the ability to think about numbers and work with them – and how these processes are implemented in the brain.

The goal: Developing adequate learning and instruction approaches, as well as support for children with special education needs.

Numeracy acquisition is essential in order to function in the numerate society we are part of, meaning high quality mathematical learning and instruction is a major purpose of our education system.

More recently, the team has also started to look at the development of (a)typical reading and its brain basis.

The role of language

Schiltz and her team have uncovered that language plays a significant role in mathematical learning – important knowledge for Luxembourg with its multilingual school system.

“Research shows that the language used to teach math greatly affects how students think and learn about it. This knowledge is guiding the changes in public schools in Luxembourg, where there are many different languages spoken. The goal is to make education more suitable for all students in Luxembourg’s multilingual and multicultural environment,” Christine Schiltz, Full Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience and Head of the Cognitive Science and Assessment institute at the University of Luxembourg, explains.

One of the team’s discoveries shows that language influences how we think about numbers.

“For example, when you do math in your second language of mathematical learning in Luxembourg that would be typically French. We could show that this comes with a certain cost compared to the first language of math learning, which in Luxembourg would be typically German. And we even saw that this changes the way our brain is activating while we are calculating in this second language. ”
Christine Schiltz Full Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience and Head of the Cognitive Science and Assessment institute at the University of Luxembourg

Numbers – left for small, right for big

The team was also able to show that when young children think about numbers, it is associated with a certain space: Even in preschool, before children learn how to read and write, when they think of small numbers, they shift their spatial attention to the left. When they think about large numbers, they associate it with the right side of space. This shows that this association between numbers in space comes very early on in development.

It was also shown that primary school children shift their attention during arithmetic problem solving moving their eyes, and attention, to the right for addition and to the left during subtraction, in 4th grade already like adults.

“Our work also recently contributed to the characterisation of the brain activity underlying the (a)typical development of word reading in beginning readers. We have also championed the use of EEG (electroencephalography) in combination with a fast periodic visual stimulation. This allows us to measure brain activity in all different kind of ages in automatic fashion. It provides a very special glimpse into how young and elderly adults and even young children are thinking and how their brain works during this thinking. ”
Christine Schiltz Full Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience and Head of the Cognitive Science and Assessment institute at the University of Luxembourg

The findings of Schiltz & team support the development of a new math “book” (i.e. pedagogical support) – Schiltz is a member of the consulting commission – and it can also help inform the training of future math teachers.

Machine learning will enable major advances in cognitive neuroscience

Christine Schiltz explains her research field – cognitive neuroscience – has come a long way since she started: Brain imaging such as fMRI have become very widely used and have replaced PETscan research, which was very rare in the early 1990s.

“Content-wise the research on numerical and mathematical thinking and learning has also emerged as dedicated community, with the recognition of dyscalculia – a specific learning impairment in mathematics – being understood, recognised and diagnosed, while this was not the case 25 years ago. ”
Christine Schiltz Full Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience and Head of the Cognitive Science and Assessment institute at the University of Luxembourg

When asked what the future may have in store for her field, Schiltz explains that developments concerning neuro-imaging and statistical models using machine learning will allow major advances in cognitive neuroscience “but the balance between sophisticated methods and theoretical frameworks will need to be monitored and preserved. I hope to contribute to this development when it comes to improving our understanding of learning and thinking in multilingual contexts.”

On training the next generation of researchers

“In my group I have welcomed until now 15 PhD candidates (9 already defended, 4 ongoing, 2 aborted), 4 visiting PhDs and 15 post-doctoral researchers. 3 former group members have become Professors (one holding an ERC starting grant). My interest and the line of work on numbers and language initiated from the NUMLANG project led by Dr. Sonja Ugen in which I took over the PhD supervision of Amandine Van Rinsveld, since Sonja did not yet hold the right to supervise PhDs at the time. Recently, a similar extension of my interest to the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of reading has been sparked and fuelled by the ReadingBrain project of Dr. Aliette Lochy in my team. I have learned as much with them (if not more) than they with me and I was very happy and honoured to be nominated by my team in 2021 for the first FNR Awards “outstanding mentor” call.”

Further highlighted projects (focus on FNR-supported)

AFR PhD Grant for Danielle Hoffmann (2010-2013) First description of spatio-numerical association called SNARC in preschool children (also confirmed by SpaNuMaDev project)
AFR PhD Grant for Max Greisen (2015-2018) Description of the importance of German reading comprehension for math performance in the Luxembourg school system (as measured by EpStan)
Follow-up of LANGNUM project (2012-2015 led by Dr. Sonja Ugen): Highlighting of specific brain activation pattern during bilingual arithmetic problem solving in collaboration with Dr. Amandine van Rinsveld (then a post-doctoral research fellow in the Cognitive Neuroscience research group).
PhD of Remy Lachelin in PRIDE DTU-Member, ‘Capitalising on Linguistic Diversity in Education’ (CALIDIE)(2017-2022): Finding that semantic access of the meaning of one-digit numbers is weaker in the second language of math learning

On the impact of the FNR

“As I had joined the UL in 2003 as a young and somewhat naïve Associate Professor, I did not negotiate any support (e.g. AFR PhD or Post-Doc position funded by UL; research budget). So all my research initially was possible only thanks to AFR projects by the FNR (6 AFR PhD, 5 Post-Doc) and even to the precursor of FNR; being myself a BFR (former AFR) grant awardee ;-).

“Personally, these projects also allowed me to be successful in the first internal promotion processing, where I was promoted from Associate to Full Professor in 2015.”

“I also remember attending the FNR’s 10^th birthday, where Mr Science performed an experiment with baking soda and vinegar to construct small home-made rockets with plastic bottles, which we then repeated at home with the children at their birthday party.”

Christine Schiltz’s FNR projects (main applicant – AFR not included)

Project title	Call year	FNR funding instrument
(How) does language support the development of an independent symbolic number system?	2020	CORE
Understanding the role of spatial number representations and spatial skills in mathematical abilities: From kindergarten to higher education	2020	INTER
Spatial-Numerical associations in mental arithmetic	2017	INTER
Understanding the relationship between electrophysiological indexes of face perception with fast perodic visual stimulation and explicit behavioral measures	2015	INTER

Related Funding Instruments

AFR

Deadline: 13-03-2024 14:00

CORE

Deadline: 17-04-2024 14:00