Figure 4.

Eight weeks of one-to-one math tutoring remediates impaired functional brain circuits anchored in the amygdala in HMA children. A Time (pre-tutoring, post-tutoring) × Group (HMA, LMA) interaction analysis revealed that HMA children showed normalization of interhemispheric hyperconnectivity between the right and the left amygdala to the levels seen in LMA children. Notably, before tutoring, children in the HMA group showed greater effective connectivity between the right and the left amygdala during mathematical problem solving when compared with the LMA group. After tutoring, differences in effective connectivity of the amygdala that were evident before tutoring were entirely absent, suggesting remediation of impaired functional brain circuits in the HMA group. Left, Right amygdala seed region (x = 30 mm, y = 2 mm, z = −20 mm) used in the effective connectivity analysis and the left amygdala region (x = −26 mm, y = 2 mm, z = −24 mm) that showed a significant interaction between tutoring session and group. Top right, Higher effective connectivity in the HMA group, compared with the LMA group, between the right amygdala and the left amygdala before tutoring. Bottom right, After tutoring, there were no differences in the effective connectivity between the HMA and LMA groups, between the right amygdala and the left amygdala (**p < 0.01).