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Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience ·

Volume 4 - 2012 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnevo.2012.00004

The Language–Number Interface in the Brain: A Complex Parametric Study of Quantifiers and Quantities

  • Stefan Heim1,2,3,4*corresponding author
  • Katrin Amunts1,2,4
  • Dan Drai5
  • Simon B. Eickhoff1,2,4,6
  • Sarah Hautvast2
  • Yosef Grodzinsky2,7,8
  1. 11 Section Structural-functional Brain Mapping, Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy, and Psychosomatics, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University Aachen, Germany
  2. 22 Research Centre Jülich, Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1 and INM-2) Jülich, Germany
  3. 33 Section Neurological Cognition Research, Department of Neurology, Medical School, RWTH Aachen University Aachen, Germany
  4. 44 Jülich-Aachen Research Alliance – Translational Brain Medicine Jülich and Aachen, Germany
  5. 55 School of Communication, Inter Disciplinary Center Herzylia, Israel
  6. 66 Institut für Klinische Neurowissenschaften und Medizinische Psychologie, Heinrich-Heine Universität Düsseldorf, Germany
  7. 77 Department of Linguistics, McGill University Montreal, QC, Canada
  8. 88 Department of Neurology/Neurosurgery, McGill University Montreal, QC, Canada
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Abstract

The neural bases for numerosity and language are of perennial interest. In monkeys, neural separation of numerical Estimation and numerical Comparison has been demonstrated. As linguistic and numerical knowledge can only be compared in humans, we used a new fMRI paradigm in an attempt to dissociate Estimation from Comparison, and at the same time uncover the neural relation between numerosity and language. We used complex stimuli: images depicting a proportion between quantities of blue and yellow circles were coupled with sentences containing quantifiers that described them (e.g., “most/few of the circles are yellow”). Participants verified sentences against images. Both Estimation and Comparison recruited adjacent, partially overlapping bi-hemispheric fronto-parietal regions. Additional semantic analysis of positive vs. negative quantifiers involving the interpretation of quantity and numerosity specifically recruited left area 45. The anatomical proximity between numerosity regions and those involved in semantic analysis points to subtle links between the number system and language. Results fortify the homology of Estimation and Comparison between humans and monkeys.

Keywords

References

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Citation

Heim, S., et al. (2012). The Language–Number Interface in the Brain: A Complex Parametric Study of Quantifiers and Quantities. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience, Volume 4. https://doi.org/
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4 - 2012

Copyright

Copyright © 2012 Heim, Amunts, Drai, Eickhoff, Hautvast and Grodzinsky.

License: http://www.frontiersin.org/licenseagreement

*Correspondence: Stefan Heim

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