Developmental Trajectories of Addition and Subtraction in Early School-aged Children

Mastering basic arithmetic lays the foundation for lifelong mathematical achievement, yet how the neural mechanisms underlying addition and subtraction calculations develop during childhood remain unclear. This study investigated the developmental trajectories of addition and subtraction calculations in school-aged children, and explored how arithmetic-specific neural responses in the right parieto-occipital region are related to age-related improvements in behavioral performance. Here, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) signals from 115 typically developing children divided into three age groups (7–8-, 9–10-, and 11–12-year-olds) during an arithmetic task involving addition and subtraction calculations. We analyzed the P300 component from the original waveforms and the ΔP300 component from the difference waveforms, which were generated by subtracting the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by the first operand from those elicited by the second operand to isolate arithmetic-specific neural processes. The results revealed that, in both calculations, older children showed better behavioral performance (faster reaction time and larger PI) and greater right parieto-occipital ΔP300 amplitudes, with a key developmental stage at 11–12 years. Furthermore, all groups of children exhibited greater right parieto-occipital P300 and ΔP300 amplitudes in subtraction, whereas the smaller right parieto-occipital ΔP300 amplitudes in addition significantly mediated the relationship between age and PI. These findings reveal distinct patterns for addition and subtraction calculations over development, highlighting the right parieto-occipital ΔP300 amplitude as a neural marker of arithmetic performance, particularly for addition calculation.