Publication Date:
1999-05-13
Description:
Does the human capacity for mathematical intuition depend on linguistic competence or on visuo-spatial representations? A series of behavioral and brain-imaging experiments provides evidence for both sources. Exact arithmetic is acquired in a language-specific format, transfers poorly to a different language or to novel facts, and recruits networks involved in word-association processes. In contrast, approximate arithmetic shows language independence, relies on a sense of numerical magnitudes, and recruits bilateral areas of the parietal lobes involved in visuo-spatial processing. Mathematical intuition may emerge from the interplay of these brain systems.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Dehaene, S -- Spelke, E -- Pinel, P -- Stanescu, R -- Tsivkin, S -- HD23103/HD/NICHD NIH HHS/ -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1999 May 7;284(5416):970-4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Unite INSERM 334, Service Hospitalier Frederic Joliot, CEA/DSV, 91401 Orsay Cedex, France. dehaene@shfj.cea.fr〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10320379" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Adult
;
Brain Mapping
;
Evoked Potentials
;
Female
;
Frontal Lobe/*physiology
;
Humans
;
Intuition
;
*Language
;
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
;
Male
;
*Mathematics
;
Parietal Lobe/*physiology
;
*Thinking
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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