Abstract
Estimations of time and number share many similarities in both non-humans and man. The primary focus of this review is on the development of time and number sense across infancy and childhood, and neuropsychological findings as they relate to time and number discrimination in infants and adults. Discussion of these findings is couched within a mode-control model of timing and counting which assumes time and number share a common magnitude representation system. A basic sense of time and number likely serves as the foundation for advanced numerical and temporal competence, and aspects of higher cognition—this will be discussed as it relates to typical childhood, and certain developmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder. Directions for future research in the developmental neuroscience of time and number (NEUTIN) will also be highlighted.
Highlights
The interval timing and numerical abilities identified in nonhuman animals, human infants, and children may represent biological and developmental precursors of adults’ highly developed computational abilities (Buhusi and Cordes, 2011; Lustig, 2011; Williams, 2011)
In non-humans and humans, there are a variety of interaction effects between our estimates of time, space, and number, and these have been taken as support for mode-control models of time and number perception (e.g., Meck and Church, 1983), and those that suppose our ability to make sense of time, space, and numerosity develops from a single magnitude processing system (A Theory of Magnitude, ATOM; Walsh, 2003)
ATOM assumes that “time and quantity estimation operate on similar and partly shared accumulation principles” of the type described in the mode-control model, these two forms of account (Meck and Church, 1983; Walsh, 2003) may be theoretically dissociated at the developmental level—for instance, the mode-control model assumes numerosity is the product of an internal count, which is “built in,” and according to ATOM, numerosity is acquired by learning associations between magnitudes of different dimensions, as “specializations for time, space and quantity develop from a single magnitude system operating from birth” (2003:484)
Summary
Developmental neuroscience of time and number: implications for autism and other neurodevelopmental disabilities. The primary focus of this review is on the development of time and number sense across infancy and childhood, and neuropsychological findings as they relate to time and number discrimination in infants and adults. Discussion of these findings is couched within a mode-control model of timing and counting which assumes time and number share a common magnitude representation system. A basic sense of time and number likely serves as the foundation for advanced numerical and temporal competence, and aspects of higher cognition—this will be discussed as it relates to typical childhood, and certain developmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder.
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