title: The relation between finger gnosis and mathematical ability: why redeployment of neural circuits best explains the finding.
abstract: This paper elaborates a novel hypothesis regarding the observed predictive relation between finger gnosis and mathematical ability. In brief, we suggest that these two cognitive phenomena have overlapping neural substrates, as the result of the re-use ("redeployment") of part of the finger gnosis circuit for the purpose of representing numbers. We offer some background on the relation and current explanations for it; an outline of our alternate hypothesis; some evidence supporting redeployment over current views; and a plan for further research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, King's University College at Western University London, ON, Canada.
authors.forename: Marcie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Penner-Wilger
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Franklin & Marshall College Lancaster, PA, USA ; Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, University of Maryland, College Park MD, USA.
authors.forename: Michael L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Anderson
keywords: cross-domain modeling; exaptation; finger representation; function–structure mapping; neural substrate; number representation