Semantic numerical representation in blind subjects: The role of vision in the spatial format of the mental number line

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Castronovo ◽  
Xavier Seron
Keyword(s):  
Number Line ◽  
Mental Number Line ◽  
Numerical Representation

The role of visual experience for spatial numerical associations

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Proulx ◽  
Achille Pasqualotto ◽  
Shuichiro Taya
Keyword(s):  
Visual Experience ◽  
Opposite Effect ◽  
Random Number Generation ◽  
Number Line ◽  
Mental Number Line ◽  
Generation Task ◽  
Congenitally Blind ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Right

The topographic representation of space interacts with the mental representation of number. Evidence for such number–space relations have been reported in both synaesthetic and non-synaesthetic participants. Thus far most studies have only examined related effects in sighted participants. For example, the mental number line increases in magnitude from left to right in sighted individuals (Loetscher et al., 2008, Curr. Biol.). What is unclear is whether this association arises from innate mechanisms or requires visual experience early in life to develop in this way. Here we investigated the role of visual experience for the left to right spatial numerical association using a random number generation task in congenitally blind, late blind, and blindfolded sighted participants. Participants orally generated numbers randomly whilst turning their head to the left and right. Sighted participants generated smaller numbers when they turned their head to the left than to the right, consistent with past results. In contrast, congenitally blind participants generated smaller numbers when they turned their head to the right than to the left, exhibiting the opposite effect. The results of the late blind participants showed an intermediate profile between that of the sighted and congenitally blind participants. Visual experience early in life is therefore necessary for the development of the spatial numerical association of the mental number line.

scholarly journals Sharing a mental number line across individuals? The role of body position and empathy in joint numerical cognition

2018 ◽  
Vol 72 (7) ◽  
pp. 1732-1740 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Hartmann ◽  
Martin H Fischer ◽  
Fred W Mast
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Cognition ◽  
Body Position ◽  
Random Number Generation ◽  
Number Line ◽  
Mental Number Line ◽  
Response Level ◽  
Spatial Reference ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Spatial Reference Frame

A growing body of research shows that the human brain acts differently when performing a task together with another person than when performing the same task alone. In this study, we investigated the influence of a co-actor on numerical cognition using a joint random number generation (RNG) task. We found that participants generated relatively smaller numbers when they were located to the left (vs. right) of a co-actor (Experiment 1), as if the two individuals shared a mental number line and predominantly selected numbers corresponding to their relative body position. Moreover, the mere presence of another person on the left or right side or the processing of numbers from loudspeaker on the left or right side had no influence on the magnitude of generated numbers (Experiment 2), suggesting that a bias in RNG only emerged during interpersonal interactions. Interestingly, the effect of relative body position on RNG was driven by participants with high trait empathic concern towards others, pointing towards a mediating role of feelings of sympathy for joint compatibility effects. Finally, the spatial bias emerged only after the co-actors swapped their spatial position, suggesting that joint spatial representations are constructed only after the spatial reference frame became salient. In contrast to previous studies, our findings cannot be explained by action co-representation because the consecutive production of numbers does not involve conflict at the motor response level. Our results therefore suggest that spatial reference coding, rather than motor mirroring, can determine joint compatibility effects. Our results demonstrate how physical properties of interpersonal situations, such as the relative body position, shape seemingly abstract cognition.

Order and Magnitude Share a Common Representation in Parietal Cortex

2009 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 2114-2120 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Franklin ◽  
John Jonides
Keyword(s):  
Distance Effect ◽  
Number Line ◽  
Judgment Task ◽  
Mental Number Line ◽  
Numerical Magnitude ◽  
Intraparietal Sulcus ◽  
Ordinal Information ◽  
Common Representation ◽  
Distance Effects

The role of the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) in the representation of numerical magnitude is well established. Recently, there has also been speculation that the IPS is involved in the representation of ordinal information as well. These claims, however, overlook the fact that all neuroimaging paradigms in which participants make judgments about either magnitude and/or order result in a behavioral distance effect (i.e., the comparison is easier when the stimuli span a greater distance). This leaves open two possibilities: It may be that activation of the IPS is due to the mechanism that yields distance effects, or it may be that the IPS is involved in the representation of information about both magnitude and order. The current study used fMRI to compare a magnitude task in which participants show distance effects to an order-judgment task that yields reverse-distance effects. The results reveal activation of the IPS for both the magnitude and order tasks that is based on participants' strategies as opposed to the actual distance between the numbers. This leads to the conclusion that the IPS represents a mental number line, and that accessing this line can lead to distance effects when participants compare magnitudes and to reverse-distance effects when participants check for order.

The role of the angular gyrus in the modulation of visuospatial attention by the mental number line

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 293
Author(s):  
Z. Cattaneo ◽  
J. Silvanto ◽  
A. Pascual-Leone ◽  
L. Battelli
Keyword(s):  
Number Line ◽  
Visuospatial Attention ◽  
Mental Number Line ◽  
Angular Gyrus

Mental Number Line in the Preliterate Brain: The Role of Early Directional Experiences

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Patro ◽  
Hans-Christoph Nuerk ◽  
Ulrike Cress
Keyword(s):  
Number Line ◽  
Mental Number Line

scholarly journals The Role of Linguistics Habits and Proprioception Sense on Mental Number Line

2014 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 174-179
Author(s):  
Leung Pong Lee ◽  
Yee Yan Shek ◽  
Raymond Mok ◽  
Lap Yan Lo
Keyword(s):  
Number Line ◽  
Mental Number Line

Numerical representations: Abstract or supramodal? Some may be spatial

2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 354-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Vallar ◽  
Luisa Girelli
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Modality ◽  
Number Line ◽  
Mental Number Line ◽  
Main Role ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Numerical Representations

AbstractThe target article undermines the existence of a shared unitary numerical format, illustrating a variety of representations. The “abstract”/“not-abstract” dichotomy does not capture their specific features. These representations are “supramodal” with respect to the sensory modality of the stimulus, and independent of its specific notation, with a main role of spatial codes, both related and unrelated to the mental number line.

Primitives and Non-primitives of Numerical Representations

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Tzelgov ◽  
Dana Ganor-Stern ◽  
Arava Kallai ◽  
Michal Pinhas
Keyword(s):  
Number Line ◽  
Mental Number Line ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Numerical Representation ◽  
Numerical Distance ◽  
Unit Fractions ◽  
Automatic Retrieval ◽  
Numerical Representations ◽  
Size Congruency

Primitives of numerical representation are numbers holistically represented on the mental number line (MNL). Non-primitives are numbers generated from primitives in order to perform specific tasks. Primitives can be automatically retrieved from long-term memory (LTM). Using the size congruency effect in physical comparisons as a marker of automatic retrieval, and its modulation by intrapair numerical distance as an indication of alignment along the MNL, we identify single-digits, but not two-digit numbers, as primitives. By the same criteria, zero is a primitive, but negative numbers are not primitives, which makes zero the smallest numerical primitive. Due to their unique notational structure, fractions are automatically perceived as smaller than 1. While some specific, familiar unit fractions may be primitives, this can be shown only when component bias is eliminated by training participants to denote fractions by unfamiliar figures.

scholarly journals A mental number line in human newborns

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosa Rugani ◽  
Marco Lunghi ◽  
Elisa Di Giorgio ◽  
Lucia Regolin ◽  
Beatrice Dalla Barba ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Interactions ◽  
Number Line ◽  
Mental Number Line ◽  
Neural Systems ◽  
Cultural Learning ◽  
Primary Role ◽  
Human Adults ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Brain

ABSTRACTIn the 19th century Francis Galton first reported that humans represent numbers on a mental number line with smaller numbers on the left and larger numbers on the right. It has been suggested that this orientation emerges as a result of reading/writing habits for both words or numbers. Recent evidence in animals and infants in the first months of life has challenged the primary role of language in determining the left-to-right direction of spatial-numerical association, SNA. However, the possibility that SNA is learnt by early exposure to caregivers’ directional biases is still open. Here we show that 55-hour-old newborns, once habituated to a number (i.e., 12), spontaneously associated a smaller number (i.e., 4) with the left side and a larger number (i.e., 36) with the right side of space. Moreover, SNA in neonates was not absolute but relative. The same number (i.e., 12) was associated with the left side whenever the previously experienced number was larger (i.e., 36), but with the right side whenever the number was smaller (i.e., 4). Control on continuous physical variables showed that the effect was specific of discrete magnitudes. Hence, soon after birth humans associate smaller numbers with the left space and larger numbers with the right space. These results constitute strong evidence that in our species SNA originates from pre-linguistic and biologically precursors in the brain.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENTFor human adults, the representation of number and space is profoundly intertwined. Humans represent numbers on a left to right oriented Mental Number Line (MNL), with small numbers located on the left and larger ones on the right. How do these connections arise? Do we learn to associate numbers with space throughout cultural learning and social interactions or is this association rooted in the biology of the human brain? We showed that neonates spontaneously associate numbers with space. After being habituated to a certain number, neonates associated a smaller number with the left and a larger number with the right side. This evidence demonstrates that a predisposition to map numbers onto space is rooted in human neural systems.

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