Distribution and localization of sEEG electrodes. Electrode localization (A) Warmth map 94 of sEEG electrode contact distribution (B) sEEG implantation layouts for every of the 13 sufferers. Credit score: PLOS ONE (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0313155
New analysis reveals the distinctive human capability to conceptualize numbers could also be rooted deep throughout the mind. The outcomes of the examine by Oregon Well being & Science College involving neurosurgery sufferers additionally recommend new potentialities for tapping into these areas to enhance studying amongst folks bedeviled by math.
“This work lays the foundation to deeper understanding of number, math and symbol cognition—something that is uniquely human,” mentioned senior creator Ahmed Raslan, M.D., professor and chair of neurological surgical procedure within the OHSU Faculty of Drugs. “The implications are far-reaching.”
The examine is revealed within the journal PLOS ONE.
Raslan and co-authors recruited 13 folks with epilepsy who have been present process a generally used surgical intervention to map the precise location inside their brains the place seizures originate, a process generally known as stereotactic electroencephalography. Throughout the process, researchers requested the sufferers a sequence of questions that prompted them to consider numbers as symbols (for instance, 3), as phrases (“three”) and as ideas (a sequence of three dots).
Because the sufferers responded, researchers discovered exercise in a shocking place: the putamen.
Positioned deep throughout the basal ganglia above the mind stem, the putamen is an space of the mind primarily related to elemental capabilities, equivalent to motion, and a few cognitive operate, however not often with higher-order features of human intelligence like fixing calculus. Neuroscientists sometimes ascribe consciousness and summary thought to the cerebral cortex, which developed later in human evolution and wraps across the mind’s outer layer in folded grey matter.
“That likely means the human ability to process numbers is something that we acquired early during evolution,” Raslan mentioned. “There is something deeper in the brain that gives us this capacity to leap to where we are today.”
Researchers additionally discovered exercise as anticipated in areas of the mind that encode visible and auditory inputs, in addition to the parietal lobe, which is understood to be concerned in numerical and calculation-related capabilities.
From a sensible standpoint, the findings may show helpful in avoiding vital areas throughout surgical procedures to take away tumors or epilepsy focal factors, or in putting neurostimulators designed to cease seizures.
“Brain areas involved in processing numbers can be delineated and extra care taken to avoid damaging these areas during neurosurgical interventions,” mentioned lead creator Alexander Rockhill, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in Raslan’s lab.
Researchers credited the sufferers concerned within the examine.
“We are extremely grateful to our epilepsy patients for their willingness to participate in this research,” mentioned co-author Christian Lopez Ramos, M.D., a neurosurgical resident at OHSU. “Their involvement in answering our questions during surgery turned out to be the key to advancing scientific understanding about how our brain evolved in the deep past and how it works today.”
Certainly, the examine follows earlier traces of analysis involving mapping of the human mind throughout surgical procedure.
“I have access to the most valuable human data in nature,” Raslan mentioned. “It would be a shame to miss an opportunity to understand how the brain and mind function. All we have to do is ask the right questions.”
Within the subsequent stage of this line of analysis, Raslan anticipates discerning areas of the mind able to performing different higher-level capabilities.
Along with Raslan, Rockhill and Lopez Ramos, co-authors embody Hao Tan, M.D., Beck Shafie, Maryam Shahin, M.D., Adeline Fecker, Mostafa Ismail, Daniel Cleary, M.D., and Kelly Collins, M.D., of OHSU; and Caleb Nerison, D.O., now of Lexington Medical Middle in South Carolina.
Extra data:
Alexander P. Rockhill et al, Investigating the Triple Code Mannequin in numerical cognition utilizing stereotactic electroencephalography, PLOS ONE (2024). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0313155
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