A new study suggests constant math exercises might pay-off for children in the long run.

Researchers from Stanford University found children who are continuously drilled in fundamental addition and subtraction exercises from a young age will benefit in the long run, or when they make a shift to memory-based problem solving.

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Dr. Kathy Mann Koepke of the National Institutes of Health said the new research proved that "experience really does matter."

The team had 28 children, between 7 to 9 years-old solve several simple addition problems while inside an MRI machine. After seeing a math problem on a screen, a child pushes a button to say if the answer is right or wrong.

During the exercise, scientists recorded the children's time of response and the regions of their brain that became active.

The team also tested the children face-to-face to see if the kids counted on their fingers or moved their lips to compute. The children then returned after a year to be tested again.

Researchers said as the children got older, their answers became faster and more accurate. The team also found out there was more activity in the hippocampus, or the brain's memory center, when the children were tested again.

The hippocampus is an area in the brain where new memories are stored on a short-term basis before it's sent elsewhere for permanent storage and retrieval.

The study's senior author, Dr. Vinod Menon, said stronger hippocampal connections help an individual to quickly "retrieve facts from memory."

To confirm these deductions, Menon's team also had 40 older people examined. The team had 20 teens and 20 adults solve the same addition problems while inside the MRI machines.

After the exercises, researchers found out that adults no longer solve the problems. Instead, they almost automatically retrieve the answer from the long-term storage area in their brains.

Koepke said the study proves that constantly quizzing children with addition and multiplication will result in kids becoming "more stable with skill development."

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