Number Forms in the Brain

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (9) ◽  
pp. 1547-1556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joey Tang ◽  
Jamie Ward ◽  
Brian Butterworth

Mental images of number lines, Galton's “number forms” (NF), are a useful way of investigating the relation between number and space. Here we report the first neuroimaging study of number-form synesthesia, investigating 10 synesthetes with NFs going from left to right compared with matched controls. Neuroimaging with functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed no difference in brain activation during a task focused on number magnitude but, in a comparable task on number order, synesthetes showed additional activations in the left and right posterior intraparietal sulci, suggesting that NFs are essentially ordinal in nature. Our results suggest that there are separate but partially overlapping neural circuits for the processing of ordinal and cardinal numbers, irrespective of the presence of an NF, but a core region in the anterior intraparietal sulcus representing (cardinal) number meaning appears to be activated autonomously, irrespective of task. This article provides an important extension beyond previous studies that have focused on word-color or grapheme-color synesthesia.

Author(s):  
William P. Wergin ◽  
Eric F. Erbe

The eye-brain complex allows those of us with normal vision to perceive and evaluate our surroundings in three-dimensions (3-D). The principle factor that makes this possible is parallax - the horizontal displacement of objects that results from the independent views that the left and right eyes detect and simultaneously transmit to the brain for superimposition. The common SEM micrograph is a 2-D representation of a 3-D specimen. Depriving the brain of the 3-D view can lead to erroneous conclusions about the relative sizes, positions and convergence of structures within a specimen. In addition, Walter has suggested that the stereo image contains information equivalent to a two-fold increase in magnification over that found in a 2-D image. Because of these factors, stereo pair analysis should be routinely employed when studying specimens.Imaging complementary faces of a fractured specimen is a second method by which the topography of a specimen can be more accurately evaluated.


Philology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2018) ◽  
pp. 157-172
Author(s):  
FERNANDO GOMEZ-ACEDO ◽  
ENEKO GOMEZ-ACEDO

Abstract In this work a new insight into the reconstruction of the original forms of the first Basque cardinal numbers is presented and the identified original meaning of the names given to the numbers is shown. The method used is the internal reconstruction, using for the etymologies words that existed and still exist in Basque and other words reconstructed from the proto-Basque. As a result of this work it has been discovered that initially the numbers received their name according to a specific and logic procedure. According to this ancient method of designation, each cardinal number received its name based on the hand sign used to represent it, thus describing the position adopted by the fingers of the hand to represent each number. Finally, the different stages of numerical formation are shown, which demonstrate a long and diachronic development of the whole counting system.


Author(s):  
Jeffrey S. Brooks ◽  
Adam Redgrift ◽  
Allen A. Champagne ◽  
James P. Dickey

AbstractThis study sought to evaluate head accelerations in both players involved in a football collision. Players on two opposing Canadian university teams were equipped with helmet mounted sensors during one game per season, for two consecutive seasons. A total of 276 collisions between 58 instrumented players were identified via video and cross-referenced with sensor timestamps. Player involvement (striking and struck), impact type (block or tackle), head impact location (front, back, left and right), and play type were recorded from video footage. While struck players did not experience significantly different linear or rotational accelerations between any play types, striking players had the highest linear and rotational head accelerations during kickoff plays (p ≤ .03). Striking players also experienced greater linear and rotational head accelerations than struck players during kickoff plays (p = .001). However, struck players experienced greater linear and rotational accelerations than striking players during kick return plays (p ≤ .008). Other studies have established that the more severe the head impact, the greater risk for injury to the brain. This paper’s results highlight that kickoff play rule changes, as implemented in American college football, would decrease head impact exposure of Canadian university football athletes and make the game safer.


2004 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 377-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick Grush

The emulation theory of representation is developed and explored as a framework that can revealingly synthesize a wide variety of representational functions of the brain. The framework is based on constructs from control theory (forward models) and signal processing (Kalman filters). The idea is that in addition to simply engaging with the body and environment, the brain constructs neural circuits that act as models of the body and environment. During overt sensorimotor engagement, these models are driven by efference copies in parallel with the body and environment, in order to provide expectations of the sensory feedback, and to enhance and process sensory information. These models can also be run off-line in order to produce imagery, estimate outcomes of different actions, and evaluate and develop motor plans. The framework is initially developed within the context of motor control, where it has been shown that inner models running in parallel with the body can reduce the effects of feedback delay problems. The same mechanisms can account for motor imagery as the off-line driving of the emulator via efference copies. The framework is extended to account for visual imagery as the off-line driving of an emulator of the motor-visual loop. I also show how such systems can provide for amodal spatial imagery. Perception, including visual perception, results from such models being used to form expectations of, and to interpret, sensory input. I close by briefly outlining other cognitive functions that might also be synthesized within this framework, including reasoning, theory of mind phenomena, and language.


2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (18) ◽  
pp. 3085-3089
Author(s):  
Massimo Fioranelli ◽  
Alireza Sepehri ◽  
Maria Grazia Roccia ◽  
Cota Linda ◽  
Chiara Rossi ◽  
...  

To recover chick embryos damaged the brain, two methods are presented. In both of them, somatic cells of an embryo introduced into an egg cell and an embryo have emerged. In one method, injured a part of the brain in the head of an embryo is replaced with a healthy part of the brain. In the second method, the heart of brain embryo dead is transplanted with the embryo heart. In this mechanism, new blood cells are emerged in the bone marrow and transmit information of transplantation to subventricular zone (SVZ) of the brain through the circulatory system. Then, SVZ produces new neural stem cells by a subsequent dividing into neurons. These neurons produce new neural circuits within the brain and recover the injured brain. To examine the model, two hearts of two embryos are connected, and their effects on neural circuits are observed.  


Author(s):  
Andrea Moro

One of the major discoveries of modern linguistics is that languages do not vary arbitrarily: for example, all syntactic rules must be based on hierarchical structure generated by recursive procedure rather than linear order. Neuroimaging techniques have shown that these formal restrictions constituting the boundaries of Babel are in fact represented in the brain for people who learn non-recursive artificially designed rules do not involve those neural circuits that underpin language computation. The boundaries of Babels cannot be cultural and arbitrary.


2018 ◽  
pp. 135-184
Author(s):  
Walter Glannon

This chapter discusses functional neurosurgery designed to modulate dysfunctional neural circuits mediating sensorimotor, cognitive, emotional, and volitional capacities. The chapter assesses the comparative benefits and risks of neural ablation and deep brain stimulation as the two most invasive forms of neuromodulation. It discusses the question of whether individuals with a severe or moderately severe psychiatric disorder have enough cognitive and emotional capacity to weigh reasons for and against ablation or deep brain stimulation and give informed consent to undergo it. The chapter also discusses the obligations of investigators conducting these trials to research subjects. In addition, it examines the medical and ethical justification for a sham control arm in psychiatric neurosurgery clinical trials. It considers the therapeutic potential of optogenetics as a novel form of neuromodulation. The fact that this technique manipulates both genetic material and neural circuits and has been tested only in animal models makes it unclear what its benefit–risk ratio would be. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of the potential of neuromodulation to stimulate endogenous repair and growth mechanisms in the brain.


Author(s):  
Anna K. Prohl ◽  
◽  
Benoit Scherrer ◽  
Xavier Tomas-Fernandez ◽  
Peter E. Davis ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is prevalent in tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC), occurring in approximately 50% of patients, and is hypothesized to be caused by disruption of neural circuits early in life. Tubers, or benign hamartomas distributed stochastically throughout the brain, are the most conspicuous of TSC neuropathology, but have not been consistently associated with ASD. Widespread neuropathology of the white matter, including deficits in myelination, neuronal migration, and axon formation, exist and may underlie ASD in TSC. We sought to identify the neural circuits associated with ASD in TSC by identifying white matter microstructural deficits in a prospectively recruited, longitudinally studied cohort of TSC infants. Methods TSC infants were recruited within their first year of life and longitudinally imaged at time of recruitment, 12 months of age, and at 24 months of age. Autism was diagnosed at 24 months of age with the ADOS-2. There were 108 subjects (62 TSC-ASD, 55% male; 46 TSC+ASD, 52% male) with at least one MRI and a 24-month ADOS, for a total of 187 MRI scans analyzed (109 TSC-ASD; 78 TSC+ASD). Diffusion tensor imaging properties of multiple white matter fiber bundles were sampled using a region of interest approach. Linear mixed effects modeling was performed to test the hypothesis that infants who develop ASD exhibit poor white matter microstructural integrity over the first 2 years of life compared to those who do not develop ASD. Results Subjects with TSC and ASD exhibited reduced fractional anisotropy in 9 of 17 white matter regions, sampled from the arcuate fasciculus, cingulum, corpus callosum, anterior limbs of the internal capsule, and the sagittal stratum, over the first 2 years of life compared to TSC subjects without ASD. Mean diffusivity trajectories did not differ between groups. Conclusions Underconnectivity across multiple white matter fiber bundles develops over the first 2 years of life in subjects with TSC and ASD. Future studies examining brain-behavior relationships are needed to determine how variation in the brain structure is associated with ASD symptoms.


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