From humble neural beginnings comes knowledge of numbers.
Following a recent report that monkey prefrontal cortex contains cells that represent number concepts, Nieder and Miller investigated the scale used to code numbers. In this issue of Neuron, they report that prefrontal cells use the same scale (Weber's Law) used by sensory neurons to code stimulus intensity, suggesting how abstract cognitive operations may arise from simpler building blocks that humans share with other animals.
Pessoa
Luiz
L
Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, Bethesda, MD 20892, USA.
Desimone
Robert
R
D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology