Posts tagged numerosity
Articles and news from the latest research reports.
Finally mapped: The brain region that distinguishes bits from bounty
In comparing amounts of things — be it the grains of sand on a beach, or the size of a sea gull flock inhabiting it — humans use a part of the brain that is organized topographically, researchers have finally shown. In other words, the neurons that work to make this “numerosity” assessment are laid out in a shape that allows those most closely related to communicate and interact over the shortest possible distance.
This layout, referred to as a topographical map, is characteristic of all primary senses — sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste — and scientists have long assumed that numerosity, while not a primary sense (but perceived similarly to one), might be characterized by such a map, too.
But they have not been able to find it, which has caused some doubt in the field as to whether a map for numerosity exists.
Now, however, Utrecht University’s Benjamin Harvey, along with his colleagues, have sussed out signals that illustrate the hypothesized numerosity map is real.
Numerosity, it is important to note, is distinct from symbolic numbers. “We use symbolic numbers to represent numerosity and other aspects of magnitude, but the symbol itself is only a representation,” Harvey said. He went on to explain that numerosity selectivity in the brain is derived from visual processing of image features, where symbolic number selectivity is derived by recognizing the shapes of numerals, written words, and linguistic sounds that represent numbers. “This latter task relies on very different parts of the brain that specialize in written and spoken language.”
Understanding whether the brain’s processing of numerosity and symbolic numbers is related, as we might be tempted to think, is just one area that will be better informed by Harvey’s new map.
To uncover it, he and his colleagues asked eight adult study participants to look at patterns of dots that varied in number over time, all the while analysing the neural response properties in a numerosity-linked part of their brain using high-field fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). Use of this advanced neuroimaging method allowed them to scan the subjects for far fewer hours per sitting than would have been required with a less powerful scanning technology.
With the fMRI data that resulted, Harvey and his team used population receptive field modelling, which aims to measure neural response as directly and quantitatively as possible. “This was the key to our success,” Harvey said. It allowed the researchers to model the human fMRI response properties they observed following results of recordings from macaque neurons, in which numerosity experiments had been conducted more extensively.
Their efforts revealed a topographical layout of numerosity in the human brain; the small quantities of dots the participants observed were encoded by neurons in one part of the brain, and the larger quantities, in another.
This finding demonstrates that topography can emerge not just for lower-level cognitive functions, like the primary senses, but for higher-level cognitive functions, too.
"We are very excited that association cortex can produce emergent topographic structures," Harvey said.
Because scientists know a great deal about topographical maps (and have the tools to probe them), the work of Harvey et al. may help scientists better analyse the neural computation underlying number processing.
"We believe this will lead to a much more complete understanding of humans’ unique numerical and mathematical skills," Harvey said.
Having heard from others in the field about the difficulty associated with the hunt for a topographical map of numerosity, Harvey and colleagues were surprised to obtain the results they did.
They also found the variations between their subjects interesting.
"Every individual brain is a complex and very different system," Harvey explained. "I was very surprised then that the map we report is in such a consistent location between our subjects, and that numerosity preferences always increased in the same direction along the cortex."
"On the other hand," he continued, "the extent of individual differences … is also striking." Harvey explained that understanding the consequences of these differences for their subjects’ perception or task performance will require further study.
(Source: eurekalert.org)
Monkey Math: Baboons Show Brain’s Ability To Understand Numbers
Opposing thumbs, expressive faces, complex social systems: it’s hard to miss the similarities between apes and humans. Now a new study with a troop of zoo baboons and lots of peanuts shows that a less obvious trait—the ability to understand numbers—also is shared by man and his primate cousins.
“The human capacity for complex symbolic math is clearly unique to our species,” says co-author Jessica Cantlon, assistant professor of brain and cognitive sciences at the University of Rochester. “But where did this numeric prowess come from? In this study we’ve shown that non-human primates also possess basic quantitative abilities. In fact, non-human primates can be as accurate at discriminating between different quantities as a human child.”
“This tells us that non-human primates have in common with humans a fundamental ability to make approximate quantity judgments,” says Cantlon. “Humans build on this talent by learning number words and developing a linguistic system of numbers, but in the absence of language and counting, complex math abilities do still exist.”
Cantlon, her research assistant Allison Barnard, postdoctoral fellow Kelly Hughes, and other colleagues at the University of Rochester and the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, N.Y., reported their findings online May 2 in the open-access journal Frontiers in Psychology.
The study tracked eight olive baboons, ages 4 to 14, in 54 separate trials of guess-which-cup-has-the-most-treats. Researchers placed one to eight peanuts into each of two cups, varying the numbers in each container. The baboons received all the peanuts in the cup they chose, whether it was the cup with the most goodies or not. The baboons guessed the larger quantity roughly 75 percent of the time on easy pairs when the relative difference between the quantities was large, for example two versus seven. But when the ratios were more difficult to discriminate, say six versus seven, their accuracy fell to 55 percent.
That pattern, argue the authors, helps to resolve a standing question about how animals understand quantity. Scientists have speculated that animals may use two different systems for evaluating numbers: one based on keeping track of discrete objects—a skill known to be limited to about three items at a time—and a second approach based on comparing the approximate differences between counts.
The baboons’ choices, conclude the authors, clearly relied on this latter “more than” or “less than” cognitive approach, known as the analog system. The baboons were able to consistently discriminate pairs with numbers larger than three as long as the relative difference between the peanuts in each cup was large. Research has shown that children who have not yet learned to count also depend on such comparisons to discriminate between number groups, as do human adults when they are required to quickly estimate quantity.
Studies with other animals, including birds, lemurs, chimpanzees, and even fish, have also revealed a similar ability to estimate relative quantity, but scientists have been wary of the findings because much of this research is limited to animals trained extensively in experimental procedures. The concern is that the results could reflect more about the experimenters than about the innate ability of the animals.
“We want to make sure we are not creating a ‘Clever Hans effect,’” cautions Cantlon, referring to the horse whose alleged aptitude for math was shown to rest instead on the ability to read the unintentional body language of his human trainer. To rule out such influence, the study relied on zoo baboons with no prior exposure to experimental procedures. Additionally, a control condition tested for human bias by using two experimenters—each blind to the contents of the other cup—and found that the choice patterns remained unchanged.
A final experiment tested two baboons over 130 more trials. The monkeys showed little improvement in their choice rate, indicating that learning did not play a significant role in understanding quantity.
“What’s surprising is that without any prior training, these animals have the ability to solve numerical problems,” says Cantlon. The results indicate that baboons not only use comparisons to understand numbers, but that these abilities occur naturally and in the wild, the authors conclude.
Finding a functioning baboon troop for cognitive research was serendipitous, explains study co-author Jenna Bovee, the elephant handler at the Seneca Park Zoo who is also the primary keeper for the baboons. The African monkeys are hierarchical, with an alpha male at the top of the social ladder and lots of jockeying for status among the other members of the group. Many zoos have to separate baboons that don’t get along, leaving only a handful of zoos with functioning troops, Bovee explained.
Involvement in this study and ongoing research has been enriching for the 12-member troop, she said, noting that several baboons participate in research tasks about three days a week. “They enjoy it,” she says. “We never have to force them to participate. If they don’t want to do it that day, no big deal.
“It stimulates our animals in a new way that we hadn’t thought of before,” Bovee adds. “It kind of breaks up their routine during the day, gets them thinking. It gives them time by themselves to get the attention focused on them for once. And it reduces fighting among the troop. So it’s good for everybody.”
The zoo has actually adapted some of the research techniques, like a matching game with a touch-screen computer that dispenses treats, and taken it to the orangutans. “They’re using an iPad,” she says.
She also enjoys documenting the intelligence of her charges. “A lot of people don’t realize how smart these animals are. Baboons can show you that five is more than two. That’s as accurate as a typical three year old, so you have to give them that credit.”
Cantlon extends those insights to young children: “In the same way that we underestimate the cognitive abilities of non-human animals, we sometimes underestimate the cognitive abilities of preverbal children. There are quantitative abilities that exist in children prior to formal schooling or even being able to use language.”