Relations between balancing and arithmetic skills in children – Evidence of cerebellar involvement?

Reading performance has been shown to be linked with balancing skills, possibly indicating an involvement of the cerebellum in reading-related tasks. In our study, we examined whether a similar connection can be detected for arithmetic performance. We assessed basic arithmetic skills of 8–10-year-old children (n = 53) and asked them to balance on the left or right foot, with eyes open or closed. Results revealed substantial correlations between performance in arithmetic tasks and in the balancing tasks with closed eyes even when controlling for attentional and reasoning capabilities. These findings are interpreted in terms of a cerebellar involvement in arithmetic tasks. We propose that verbally mediated arithmetic tasks like multiplication might be related to cerebellar functions in different ways than those arithmetic tasks that require elaboration strategies and quantity manipulations, such as subtraction.

► We examine relations between balancing and arithmetic skills in children.
► Performance in arithmetic and in balancing tasks correlate positively.
► Findings are interpreted in terms of a cerebellar involvement in arithmetic tasks.