Real Clear Education – Katherine Buchholz 
Even da Vinci himself was unaware of how smart he truly was. Recent studies in neuroscience and education at Stanford University and Brigham Young University show that understanding symmetry opens up young minds to learning more. A few years ago, Stanford researchers wondered why it was so difficult for children to grasp the concept of negative numbers. Then, while experimenting with adults, they discovered something surprising: Even adults found it easier to name the midpoint of a positive and negative number if the two numbers were more symmetric around zero. In other words, adults can more quickly calculate the midpoint of +6 and -4 than they can +8 and -2. (more)