The DOI matches its Crossref record; 4 of the 4 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Semantic Associations between Signs and Numerical Categories in the Prefrontal Cortex
Open accessAbstract
The utilization of symbols such as words and numbers as mental tools endows humans with unrivalled cognitive flexibility. In the number domain, a fundamental first step for the acquisition of numerical symbols is the semantic association of signs with cardinalities. We explored the primitives of such a semantic mapping process by recording single-cell activity in the monkey prefrontal and parietal cortices, brain structures critically involved in numerical cognition. Monkeys were trained to associate visual shapes with varying numbers of items in a matching task. After this long-term learning process, we found that the responses of many prefrontal neurons to the visual shapes reflected the associated numerical value in a behaviorally relevant way. In contrast, such association neurons were rarely found in the parietal lobe. These findings suggest a cardinal role of the prefrontal cortex in establishing semantic associations between signs and abstract categories, a cognitive precursor that may ultimately give rise to symbolic thinking in linguistic humans.
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Hebb, D. O. (2005) · doi:10.4324/9781410612403 · Cited by 9,825
Exaptation—a missing term in the science of form
Gould, S. J., & Vrba, E. S. (1982) · Paleobiology · doi:10.1017/s0094837300004310 · Cited by 5,136
Neural organization for the long-term memory of paired associates
Sakai, K., & Miyashita, Y. (1991) · Nature · doi:10.1038/354152a0 · Cited by 743
Prospective coding for objects in primate prefrontal cortex
Rainer, G., Rao, S. C., & Miller, E. K. (1999) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.19-13-05493.1999 · Cited by 432 · cited 1×
“We observed that many neurons associated visual shapes with numerical values transiently, and not until the end of the delay period (Figure 4A), whereas prospective activity typically dominates near the end of the delay [29].”
Background
Cited by
Representation of Number in the Brain
Nieder, A., & Dehaene, S. (2009) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.neuro.051508.135550 · Cited by 847
Self-citationThe parietal cortex and the representation of time, space, number and other magnitudes
Bueti, D., & Walsh, V. (2009) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0028 · Cited by 785
Computer-assisted intervention for children with low numeracy skills
Räsänen, P., Salminen, J., Wilson, A. J., Aunio, P., & Dehaene, S. (2009) · Cognitive Development · doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2009.09.003 · Cited by 314
Origins of Mathematical Intuitions: The Case of Arithmetic
Dehaene, S. (2009) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04469.x · Cited by 262
Prefrontal–parietal function: from foraging to foresight
Genovesio, A., Wise, S. P., & Passingham, R. E. (2014) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2013.11.007 · Cited by 137
Metadata
- Authors
- Diester, I., & Nieder, A.
- Venue
- PLoS Biology
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Published
- 2007-10-30
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- e294
- ISSN
- 1544-9173 (ISSN-L)
- 1545-7885
- OpenAlex
- W2010889833
- Cited by
- 180
- References
- 4
- FWCI
- 13.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
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