Promises and potential pitfalls of a ‘cognitive neuroscience of mathematics learning’

The present commentary discusses the papers of the special issue on ‘cognitive neuroscience and mathematics learning’ with respect to methodological and theoretical constraints of using neuroscientific methods to study educationally relevant processes associated with mathematics learning. A special focus is laid on the relevance of subject populations, methodological limitations of current neuroimaging methods and theoretical questions concerning the relationship between the well-studied neural correlates of numerical magnitude processing and the less-investigated neural processes underlying higher level mathematical skills, such as algebraic reasoning.