The Numerical Brain--Is the Parietal Lobe the Key?

Mathematical savants such as Daniel Tammet, featured in the above 48 minute video, are still a mystery to cognitive scientists. But two studies in the January 18, 2007 edition of Neuron, may offer some clues.

Both studies reveal in unprecedented detail how structures in the parietal cortex--the region of higher cognitive processing just above the forehead--activates during perception of both abstract quantities and numerical symbols.

In one paper, Manuela Piazza and colleagues showed that regions of the parietal lobe activate in response to numbers, either when they are presented as patterns of dots or as Arabic numerals.

In their experiments, the researchers asked human volunteers to pay attention to the quantities conveyed by groups of dots or numeric digits presented to them. During the process, the subjects' brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), in which harmless magnetic fields and radio waves are used to measure blood flow in brain regions, which reflects activity.

The researchers found that the initial presentation of the numeric stimuli activated the parietal region of the subjects' brains, which subsided as they adapted to the stimulus. However, the activation rebounded when the subjects were presented with an abrupt change in the quantity, whether it was represented in the same (dots versus dots) or different (dots versus Arabic numerals) notation as the original. This rebound indicated that the region was processing numerical information.

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What separates the mathematical genius from more normal folks? What makes an Euler or Gauss different from the rest of us? Why are there so many more male mathematical geniuses than female? What part does Asperger's Syndrome play? Such mysteries may remain unsolved, for reasons of political correctness. Or perhaps society will drive around such atavistic tendencies and actually try to understand why we are the way we are? One can only hope.