Abstract
The ability to represent, discriminate, and perform arithmetic operations on discrete quantities (numerosities) has been documented in a variety of species of different taxonomic groups, both vertebrates and invertebrates. We do not know, however, to what extent similarity in behavioral data corresponds to basic similarity in underlying neural mechanisms. Here, we review evidence for magnitude representation, both discrete (countable) and continuous, following the sensory input path from primary sensory systems to associative pallial territories in the vertebrate brains. We also speculate on possible underlying mechanisms in invertebrate brains and on the role played by modeling with artificial neural networks. This may provide a general overview on the nervous system involvement in approximating quantity in different animal species, and a general theoretical framework to future comparative studies on the neurobiology of number cognition.
Highlights
The ability to represent, discriminate, and perform operations on discrete quantities has been documented in species of different taxonomic groups, proving that non-symbolic numerical cognition is not a human prerogative (Vallortigara, 2015, 2017; Butterworth et al, 2018)
The main feature reported by these behavioral experiments is the animals’ capacity to perceive the numerosity of sensory stimuli in an analog and noisy way, relying on an isomorphism between the physical quantity and its internal representation
What emerged is that numerosity might be processed straightforward, without the need to speculate on complex networks or sophisticate brains
Summary
The ability to represent, discriminate, and perform operations on discrete quantities has been documented in species of different taxonomic groups, proving that non-symbolic numerical cognition is not a human prerogative (Vallortigara, 2015, 2017; Butterworth et al, 2018). Even more compelling is the evidence that comes from studies on Numerosities and the Brains invertebrates (for a complete review, see Skorupski et al, 2018; Bortot et al, 2020a) that unlighted further how widespread and biologically relevant is the ability to perform estimation and operations with numerical quantities in the animal kingdom. Such evidence reveals how numerical cognition abilities can be implemented in small brains without the cortex (Giurfa, 2019)
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