Summary: Scientists have discovered that neurons in the human brain recognize the number zero as a numerical value, not just “nothing.” Using microelectrodes, researchers monitored brain activity in neurosurgical patients and found nerve cells that specifically responded to zero.
This study reveals how the brain integrates zero into the number line alongside other countable values. The findings provide new insights into the neuronal basis of numerical cognition.
Key Facts:
- Neurons in the medial temporal lobe recognize zero as a numerical value.
- Zero is integrated into the brain’s number line, distinct from other numbers.
- Symbolic representations like Arabic numerals help the brain process zero.
Source: University of Bonn
Despite its importance for mathematics, the neuronal basis of the number zero in the human brain was previously unknown.
Researchers from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn and the University of Tübingen have now discovered that individual nerve cells in the medial temporal lobe recognize zero as a numerical value and not as a separate category “nothing”.
The results have now been published in the journal “Current Biology.”
The concept of the number zero has been central to the development of number systems and mathematics and is widely regarded as one of humanity’s most important cultural achievements.
“Unlike other numbers such as one, two or three, which represent countable quantities, zero means the absence of something countable and at the same time still has a numerical value,” says co-corresponding author Prof. Florian Mormann from the Department of Epileptology at the UKB, who is also a member of the Transdisciplinary Research Area (TRA) “Life & Health” at the University of Bonn.
In contrast to positive natural numbers, the concept of the number zero only emerged late in human history over the last two millennia. This is also reflected in childhood development, as children are typically only able to understand the concept of zero and associated arithmetic rules at around the age of six.
Neurons signal the number zero
How this concept is represented by nerve cells in the human brain has not yet been investigated. The researchers from Bonn have now joined forces with neurobiologists from the University of Tübingen to get to the bottom of this question.
To do this, they showed neurosurgical patients, who had had hair-thin microelectrodes inserted into their temporal lobes at the UKB in preparation for surgery, numerical values from zero to nine. The numerical values were shown as Arabic numerals on the one hand and as sets of dots on the other – including an empty set.
“Meanwhile, we were able to measure the activity of individual nerve cells and actually found neurons that signaled zero,” says Esther Kutter, who is the first author of the study.
“Such neurons responded to either the Arabic numeral zero or the empty set, but not to both.”
Number zero is a numerical value for neurons
In both cases, there was a numerical distance effect in which neurons reacted weaker, but measurably, also to the neighboring number one.
“So at the neuronal level, the concept of zero is not encoded as a separate category “nothing”, but as a numerical value integrated with other, countable numerical values at the lower end of the number line,” says Prof. Dr. Andreas Nieder from the Institute of Neurobiology at the University of Tübingen.
Prof. Mormann adds: “Despite this integration, the empty set is encoded differently from other numbers at the neuronal population level, especially in the case of point sets. This could explain why the recognition of the empty set also takes longer at the behavioral level than for other small numbers.”
For Arabic numerals, however, this effect was not found at either the neural or behavioral level. From this, the researchers recognize the importance of symbolic representations, for example through Arabic numerals, for the integration of the number zero on the number line in the human brain.
Funding: The study was funded by the German Research Foundation DFG via the priority program SPP 2205.
About this numeracy and neuroscience research news
Author: Inka Väth
Source: University of Bonn
Contact: Inka Väth – University of Bonn
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Single-neuron representation of nonsymbolic and symbolic number zero in the human medial temporal lobe” by Florian Mormann et al. Current Biology
Abstract
Single-neuron representation of nonsymbolic and symbolic number zero in the human medial temporal lobe
The number zero holds a special status among numbers, indispensable for developing a comprehensive number theory. Despite its importance in mathematics, the neuronal foundation of zero in the human brain is unknown.
We conducted single-neuron recordings in neurosurgical patients while they made judgments involving nonsymbolic number representations (dot numerosity), including the empty set, and symbolic numbers (Arabic numerals), including numeral zero. Neurons showed responsiveness to either the empty set or numeral zero, but not both.
Neuronal activity to zero in both nonsymbolic and symbolic formats exhibited a numerical distance effect, indicating that zero representations are integrated together with countable numerosities and positive integers at the low end of the number line.
A boundary in neuronal coding existed between the nonsymbolic empty set and small numerosities, correlating with the relative difficulty in discriminating numerosity zero behaviorally.
Conversely, no such boundary was found for symbolic zero activity, suggesting that symbolic representations integrate zero with other numerals along the number line, reconciling its outlier role.
The status of zero as a special nonsymbolic numerical quantity is reflected in the activity of neurons in the human brain, which seems to serve as a scaffold for more advanced representations of zero as a symbolic number.
