Brains Hard-Wired for Math

mcgrew writes "New Scientist is reporting that "non-human primates really can understand the meaning of numerals." The small study of two rhesus monkeys reveals that cells in their brains respond selectively to specific number values — regardless of whether the amount is represented by dots on a screen or an Arabic numeral. For example, a given brain cell in the monkey will respond to the number three, but not the number one. The results suggest that individual cells in human brains might also have a fine-tuned preference for specific numerical values." The report itself is online at PLoS Biology, Semantic Associations between Signs and Numerical Categories in the Prefrontal Cortex."

Comments

Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

Clearly, slashdot editors are not hardwired for seeing duplicate postings

Women and Math

[cybergen007]

Women beleive that men only think of one thing. It's true. I constantly think about Math. I think about dividing the legs, subtracting the dress and then mutliplying.

Re:Understanding

[TaoPhoenix]

Linus Torvalds understands his 0S,
Richard Stallman understands 0SS.