The foundations of numerical thinking in a brain without numbers

Abstract

Clearly, much more work needs to be done to establish firmly the neural substrates of quantification processing in visuospatial circuitry, but it already looks like a promising enterprise. Dehaene et al. have presented data that provide strong new evidence for the dichotomy between perceptually and conceptually based quantitative competence. However, the findings pose new questions about which common cultural experiences are necessary to stimulate our brains to organize themselves in such a way as to add these, initially unspecified, functional capabilities. The fact that societies still exist without requirements to go beyond a number system of three items19xYanomamo: The Last Days of Eden. Chagnon, N.A. See all References19, indicates that Dehaene et al.’s findings characterize a pattern of ontogenetic brain organization that has responded to ecological demands. Questions of how environmental stimulation transforms cognitive competence from one level to another are central to the field of developmental cognitive science. Unfortunately, these are not the kinds of investigations that many of us are experienced at tackling. With the powerful new tools of brain imaging to add to our experimental methods we have reached the point where we should be able to discover how mathematical thinking arises from a brain without numbers. These new findings of Dehaene et al. and Sathian et al. should stimulate us to do so with renewed zeal.