Commonalities for Numerical and Continuous Quantity Skills at Temporo-parietal Junction.

Tools

Cappelletti, Marinella; Chamberlain, Rebecca; Freemana, Elliot D.; Kanai, Ryota; Butterworth, Brian; Price, Cathy J. and Rees, Geraint. 2014. Commonalities for Numerical and Continuous Quantity Skills at Temporo-parietal Junction. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 26(5), pp. 986-999. ISSN 0898-929X [Article]

Preview

Text
jocn_a_00546.pdf - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
Download (533kB) | Preview

Official URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24345167

Abstract or Description

How do our abilities to process number and other continu- ous quantities such as time and space relate to each other? Recent evidence suggests that these abilities share common magnitude processing and neural resources, although other findings also highlight the role of dimension-specific processes. To further characterize the relation between number, time, and space, we first examined them in a population with a devel- opmental numerical dysfunction (developmental dyscalculia) and then assessed the extent to which these abilities correlated both behaviorally and anatomically in numerically normal partic- ipants. We found that (1) participants with dyscalculia showed preserved continuous quantity processing and (2) in numerically normal adults, numerical and continuous quantity abilities were at least partially dissociated both behaviorally and anato- mically. Specifically, gray matter volume correlated with both measures of numerical and continuous quantity processing in the right TPJ; in contrast, individual differences in number pro- ficiency were associated with gray matter volume in number- specific cortical regions in the right parietal lobe. Together, our new converging evidence of selective numerical impair- ment and of number-specific brain areas at least partially distinct from common magnitude areas suggests that the human brain is equipped with different ways of quantifying the outside world

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_00546

Additional Information:

This work was supported by the Wellcome Trust (G. R., C. J. P.); a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship, Royal Society, and British Academy Research Grants (M. C.); and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and Japan Science and Technology Agency (R. K.).