title: The neural development of an abstract concept of number.
abstract: As literate adults, we appreciate numerical values as abstract entities that can be represented by a numeral, a word, a number of lines on a scorecard, or a sequence of chimes from a clock. This abstract, notation-independent appreciation of numbers develops gradually over the first several years of life. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we examine the brain mechanisms that 6- and 7-year-old children and adults recruit to solve numerical comparisons across different notation systems. The data reveal that when young children compare numerical values in symbolic and nonsymbolic notations, they invoke the same network of brain regions as adults including occipito-temporal and parietal cortex. However, children also recruit inferior frontal cortex during these numerical tasks to a much greater degree than adults. Our data lend additional support to an emerging consensus from adult neuroimaging, nonhuman primate neurophysiology, and computational modeling studies that a core neural system integrates notation-independent numerical representations throughout development but, early in development, higher-order brain mechanisms mediate this process.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA. jfc2@duke.edu
authors.forename: Jessica F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Cantlon
authors.forename: Melissa E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Libertus
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pinel
authors.forename: Stanislas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dehaene
authors.forename: Elizabeth M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Brannon
authors.forename: Kevin A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Pelphrey
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007092:Imagination / Q000502:physiology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D055641:Mathematical Concepts; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000254:growth & development / Q000502:physiology*; D012016:Reference Values; D055815:Young Adult