[Neural substrates underlying cognitive expertise].
Recent behavioral and neuro-anatomical studies of cognitive expertise have suggested that that superior performance in memory experts is neither due to extraordinary general intelligence nor anatomical brain difference. Furthermore, functional neuro-imaging studies have revealed that expert performance in mental abacus and memory experts is not attributable to increased brain activities of the process that exists in non-experts or to hyper-activity in the prefrontal cortex. On the contrary, cognitive experts utilize brain areas that are not used by non-experts. These brain regions are directly related to exceptional knowledge and unique strategies that are acquired by experts through extensive practice. These neuro-imaging findings support psychological theories that cognitive expertise is achieved by developing extensive knowledge and novel cognitive strategies not used by non-experts. These lines of evidence suggest that ordinary people could become experts through appropriate practice.