Commentary on “Is there an innate sense of number in the brain?” by Lorenzi, Kobylkov, and Vallortigara

Is there an innate sense of number? Lorenzi et al. (2025) argue that the ability to extract numerical information from the environment is vital for a wide range of species, suggesting "a likely common origin". Studies in different species show that the neural mechanism for doing this-numerosity-selective neurons-can be found in animals with no opportunity to learn. This leaves open important questions: How do numerosity-selective neurons code for numerosities? Is the code the same in different species? How do the neurons participate in arithmetical operations?

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Publication Details

Journal
Cerebral Cortex
Published
2025-01-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaf015
Primary Topic
Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Commentary on “Is there an innate sense of number in the brain?” by Lorenzi, Kobylkov, and Vallortigara

Brian Butterworth
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Cerebral Cortex
Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills
article

Commentary on “Is there an innate sense of number in the brain?” by Lorenzi, Kobylkov, and Vallortigara

Brian Butterworth
article en

Abstract

Is there an innate sense of number? Lorenzi et al. (2025) argue that the ability to extract numerical information from the environment is vital for a wide range of species, suggesting "a likely common origin". Studies in different species show that the neural mechanism for doing this-numerosity-selective neurons-can be found in animals with no opportunity to learn. This leaves open important questions: How do numerosity-selective neurons code for numerosities? Is the code the same in different species? How do the neurons participate in arithmetical operations?

Cerebral CortexVol. 35(2)
National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (GB), University College London (GB)
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 97%
Cognitive and developmental aspects of mathematical skills
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