Specialization in the Human Brain: The Case of Numbers

How numerical representation is encoded in the adult human brain is important for a basic understanding of human brain organization, its typical and atypical development, its evolutionary precursors, cognitive architectures, education, and rehabilitation. Previous studies have shown that numerical p...

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Main Authors:	Kadosh, Roi Cohen, Bahrami, Bahador, Walsh, Vincent, Butterworth, Brian, Popescu, Tudor, Price, Cathy J.
Format:	Online
Language:	English
Published:	Frontiers Research Foundation 2011
Online Access:	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3135869/

id	pubmed-3135869
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	pubmed-31358692011-08-01 Specialization in the Human Brain: The Case of Numbers Kadosh, Roi Cohen Bahrami, Bahador Walsh, Vincent Butterworth, Brian Popescu, Tudor Price, Cathy J. Neuroscience How numerical representation is encoded in the adult human brain is important for a basic understanding of human brain organization, its typical and atypical development, its evolutionary precursors, cognitive architectures, education, and rehabilitation. Previous studies have shown that numerical processing activates the same intraparietal regions irrespective of the presentation format (e.g., symbolic digits or non-symbolic dot arrays). This has led to claims that there is a single format-independent, numerical representation. In the current study we used a functional magnetic resonance adaptation paradigm, and effective connectivity analysis to re-examine whether numerical processing in the intraparietal sulci is dependent or independent on the format of the stimuli. We obtained two novel results. First, the whole brain analysis revealed that format change (e.g., from dots to digits), in the absence of a change in magnitude, activated the same intraparietal regions as magnitude change, but to a greater degree. Second, using dynamic causal modeling as a tool to disentangle neuronal specialization across regions that are commonly activated, we found that the connectivity between the left and right intraparietal sulci is format-dependent. Together, this line of results supports the idea that numerical representation is subserved by multiple mechanisms within the same parietal regions. Frontiers Research Foundation 2011-07-11 /pmc/articles/PMC3135869/ /pubmed/21808615 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00062 Text en Copyright © 2011 Cohen Kadosh, Bahrami, Walsh, Butterworth, Popescu and Price. http://www.frontiersin.org/licenseagreement This is an open-access article subject to a non-exclusive license between the authors and Frontiers Media SA, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and other Frontiers conditions are complied with.
repository_type	Open Access Journal
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	US National Center for Biotechnology Information
building	NCBI PubMed
collection	Online Access
language	English
format	Online
author	Kadosh, Roi Cohen Bahrami, Bahador Walsh, Vincent Butterworth, Brian Popescu, Tudor Price, Cathy J.
spellingShingle	Kadosh, Roi Cohen Bahrami, Bahador Walsh, Vincent Butterworth, Brian Popescu, Tudor Price, Cathy J. Specialization in the Human Brain: The Case of Numbers
author_facet	Kadosh, Roi Cohen Bahrami, Bahador Walsh, Vincent Butterworth, Brian Popescu, Tudor Price, Cathy J.
author_sort	Kadosh, Roi Cohen
title	Specialization in the Human Brain: The Case of Numbers
title_short	Specialization in the Human Brain: The Case of Numbers
title_full	Specialization in the Human Brain: The Case of Numbers
title_fullStr	Specialization in the Human Brain: The Case of Numbers
title_full_unstemmed	Specialization in the Human Brain: The Case of Numbers
title_sort	specialization in the human brain: the case of numbers
description	How numerical representation is encoded in the adult human brain is important for a basic understanding of human brain organization, its typical and atypical development, its evolutionary precursors, cognitive architectures, education, and rehabilitation. Previous studies have shown that numerical processing activates the same intraparietal regions irrespective of the presentation format (e.g., symbolic digits or non-symbolic dot arrays). This has led to claims that there is a single format-independent, numerical representation. In the current study we used a functional magnetic resonance adaptation paradigm, and effective connectivity analysis to re-examine whether numerical processing in the intraparietal sulci is dependent or independent on the format of the stimuli. We obtained two novel results. First, the whole brain analysis revealed that format change (e.g., from dots to digits), in the absence of a change in magnitude, activated the same intraparietal regions as magnitude change, but to a greater degree. Second, using dynamic causal modeling as a tool to disentangle neuronal specialization across regions that are commonly activated, we found that the connectivity between the left and right intraparietal sulci is format-dependent. Together, this line of results supports the idea that numerical representation is subserved by multiple mechanisms within the same parietal regions.
publisher	Frontiers Research Foundation
publishDate	2011
url	https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3135869/
_version_	1611465405680844800

Specialization in the Human Brain: The Case of Numbers

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