Steps Start to Add Up to a Math Path in the Brain
THURSDAY, Sept. 24 (HealthDay News) -- Careful observation and analysis of brain activity enables scientists to determine what number a person has just looked at or how many dots they've just been shown, a French study has found.
The researchers said their findings confirm the theory that numbers are encoded in the brain through detailed and specific activity patterns, something they say could help improve the investigation of humans' high-level numerical abilities.
While "number-tuned" neurons have been identified in monkeys, scientists previously had only been able to identify number-related brain regions in humans.
In the new study, the researchers used functional MRI to scan the brains of 10 volunteers as they were shown either number symbols or dots. They then used a multivariate analysis method to determine which number or how many dots the volunteers had seen.
The study was published online Sept. 24 in Current Biology.
"It was not at all guaranteed that with functional imaging it would be possible to pick this up," Evelyn Eger of Inserm, a biological, medical and public health research institute in France, said in a news release from the journal's publisher.
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