Does Leo Chou's mathematics rely on rote memorization or special mental arithmetic?

Leo Chou was discovered by Super Brain from a poor ravine. Originally identified as "mentally retarded", he became a "super brain" overnight and became a hot figure in Weibo and the media. Some people take this opportunity to "reflect on education" and deeply regret his life experience, while others suspect that Leo Chou's performance relies on "rote learning". How valuable is such an isolated case study in science? Dr Wei reinterpreted Leo Chou.

Shell Network: What everyone is most interested in is how Leo Chou worked out such a complicated math problem. Can brain science research reveal Leo Chou's ability? Did he learn by rote for decades, as some people suspect?

Wei Kunlin: There are two evidences to prove that he didn't learn by rote. The first is behavior: we ask him to write a prescription on the first day and ask him to do the same problem the next day. He is a student, that is, he has to follow the operation process; More importantly, the brain scan results, we give him an operation to see whether his memory brain area is activated during the calculation, because if he relies on memory, he must transfer the information of long-term memory to the working brain area, but the brain scan results show that his memory brain area is not activated, indicating that it is not by rote memorization.

This research is still in progress. Found some interesting points. For example, when he does a simple mathematical task-comparing the size of numbers, counting more points on the left or more points on the right, his brain area is activated, just like ordinary people; He is especially good at square sum and power operation. When he is given a root number and performs complex operations, the activation area and intensity of his brain area become smaller. Scientists already know which brain regions should be used in mental arithmetic, such as IPS in frontal lobe and parietal lobe. IPS is a brain region located in the parietal lobe, which is used for mental arithmetic. When doing arithmetic, the brain area of IPS should be bright. The more difficult the topic is, the brighter the brain area is, but this person is just the opposite ... Teacher Liu Jia, dean of the School of Psychology of Beijing Normal University, speculated that it may be too automatic, like a solidified CPU. Brain science is not clear at present, because there are too few such examples. There was a report before. One child is also good at mental arithmetic, but when you scan his brain and find that he is calculating, he uses the motor center. We don't even know what happened. The motor center may have some nerve connections suitable for certain operations. God knows what happened ... if everyone really wants to make a scene, it doesn't matter. The purpose of science is to ask better questions and constantly overthrow unreasonable answers. There are many unknowns in brain science.

Guo Ke. This slogan says that Leo Chou is "Rain Man of China". Is he autistic?

Wei Kunlin: He's not autistic. Although he is called "Chinese Rain Man" in the advertisement, there is actually a problem with his words. What people usually call "idiot genius" or "idiot genius" should refer to scholar syndrome. I don't know the exact definition of folk saying. A large proportion (70%) of scholar's syndrome are patients with Asperger's syndrome. Asperger's syndrome is an autism spectrum disorder. The new diagnostic criteria classify them as communication disorders, but their symptoms are much milder than autism. But they all have some specialties, focusing on routine and meticulous operations such as operation, reciting element lists, and drawing very detailed diagrams. A man in Detroit can fly around new york by helicopter and draw the whole of new york. Leo Chou belongs to a small group of patients with non-Asperger's syndrome.

Another key point is that autistic children also do math. It takes a long time to multiply 15 and 16 bits, and then multiply by 5 and 7, and the result will be obtained soon. But autistic children don't need to use mathematical methods to calculate. They come from hardware decoding, and the brain circuit is different from ordinary people and can be made at a glance. You don't know how he did it. But Leo Chou, who had never studied mathematics, invented a set of mathematical methods himself. You need to estimate when you open the root number, but his estimation is too accurate. Teacher Liu Jia said with great regret that if this person had not received such a poor education when he was a child and had been trained in mathematics, he might have been able to do number theory and do what Chen Jingrun did. But he was completely buried.

I have seen his little notebook. He writes and draws on it, and sometimes writes his own way on it. Make an arrow here, what to do in the first step and what to do in the second step. This is not what autistic children do. This is an important difference between him and autistic children.

Shell net: Can Leo Chou's mathematical methods be made public? Will it be recognized by mainstream mathematics? Can you see from his notebook how he calculated the number 16 and worked out the root of the number 14?

Wei Kunlin: If you are concerned about whether his mathematical methods can be recognized by mainstream mathematics, you should ask mathematicians, which is beyond the scope of our cognitive science research. We only care about how his brain realizes his calculations. Leo Chou lives in his own mathematical world. He doesn't use the mathematical system we learned in school, so I can't see why in his little book. Only mathematicians can make continuous judgments.

Shell net: Zhou Wei can create his own mathematical method, which shows that there is still something clever. Why was it diagnosed as "mentally retarded"?

Wei Kunlin: The measurement of IQ is standardized, quantifiable and has standardized topics. Measuring Leo Chou's IQ is mentally retarded, with an IQ of 56. This is because there are many questions related to understanding and knowledge in the topic. He can't read and can't understand the topic. Isn't it 0? All languages, 0 points, all knowledge, and 0 points, logic and operation, close to full marks. He just likes numbers. This man was discriminated against, called an idiot and humiliated all his life. He sat on the bench next to him as an auditor in class. This is what we talked about before. A certain dimension of intelligence is particularly strong, and some dimensions are particularly weak, but it is not autism. We think it's the scale, because if you find another illiterate to do this scale, you must be mentally retarded.

Shell net: What's the point of studying such a strange person?

Wei Kunlin: These cases may have subversive significance to the understanding of cognitive ability. For example, a classic example, a person's temporal lobe is damaged, and his long-term memory is also damaged. That man has been followed up for decades, which has provided countless inspirations for memory research. Scientists gradually realize that this shows that people can't form new memories after a certain area of the brain is damaged. After studying for ten years, I published a paper, which denied the previous papers. What's the point of finding these strange people to do research? Science can't be evaluated accurately, but you can't stop studying because it's unclear now, because you can't guarantee that there will be any subversive discoveries.

Shell Network: What is the value of the competition of people with strange brains like Leo Chou to the public's understanding of brain science?

Wei Kunlin: I think this competition is good, but it is not limited to the popularization of brain science. This is a question of how to combine science with mass media to make brain science particularly popular. Just do something sensational in the program-emotional problems, educational problems, social problems. These things may be more acceptable to ordinary people. Crying and saying, "Oh, some geniuses may be buried. Pay more attention to the people around you." These are all important, giving you a chance to tell the public. In fact, there are many geniuses around you. When you misunderstand and despise him, you may bury their super brain. Are these things science? I think it's more education. However, because of such a program, we can say so and have the opportunity to speak.