Cell Sub-Journal: "Mathematical Neurons" in the Brain

Most elementary school students probably already know that three apples plus two apples equals five apples

The researchers benefit from a special function in the Epilepsy Department of the University Hospital Bonn

Some neurons fire only when summed

Five women and four men participated in the current study

It wasn't that some neurons responded only to the "+" sign, while others only responded to the "-" sign: "Even if we replaced the mathematical sign with words, the effect did not change, for example, when subjects were asked to When calculating '5 and 3', their additive neurons immediately resumed activity; for '7 minus 4', their subtractive neurons did

This suggests that these discovered cells are actually encoding mathematical instructions for actions

Prof.

During the analysis, the two working groups discovered an interesting phenomenon: One of the brain regions studied was the so-called parahippocampal cortex

"This study marks an important step towards a better understanding of one of the most important symbolic abilities of humans - computing with numbers," Mormann emphasized

The research was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Volkswagen Foundation

Journal Reference :

1. Esther F.