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Albert Einstein once say that his numerical wizardry had nothing to do with language : " Words and language , whether written or spoken , do not seem to bring any part in my cerebration processes . "
And now high - definition brain CAT scan shew he had a point . The ways thatthe brainprocesses words and complex numerical concepts are quite different , according to a new work .
How your brain processes complex mathematical problems is very different from how it processes language.
The impression that world first developed mathematical abilities as an outgrowth of early variant of language has been a long - standing hypothesis , according to the study authors . And some study have intimate that the way the mental capacity wrangles abstract math concepts has more in commonwith language processingthan it does with simple routine credit and formula computing . [ 3D ikon : Exploring the Human Brain ]
But this idea has opponents — admit many mathematicians , the researchers noted — who argue that understanding complex maths affect perception nerve tract that differ greatly from those that untangle word .
To find out which approximation held true , researchers turned to a case of noninvasive scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging ( operative magnetised resonance imaging ) , which create high - solution images that can map changes in neural activity trigger by lineage flow . In that way , research worker would be able to see which part of the brain perch up during different types of tasks .
For the experiments in the study , the scientist selected 15 subjects who were discipline mathematicians and 15 depicted object who were well prepare but did not specialize in math . The researchers posed a series of assertion to each subject on a range of topics — math and nonmath — which participants were ask to key as " truthful , " " sham " or " meaningless . "
When both groups respond to statements on bailiwick that had nothing to do with mathematics , the brainpower scans record activeness in the region associate with language processing .
But when the mathematicians pondered and responded to statement relating to advanced mathematical concepts , certainregions of their brains — the prefrontal , parietal , and inferior worldly regions — light up . Those brain neighborhood also touch off in nonmathematicians only when they were dumbfound over numbers and formulas . During this activity , the researcher found , did not pass at all in brain regions join to word of honor .
accord to the study ’s cobalt - author Marie Amalric , their determination indicate that see math on a conceptual level apply the same neural networks that pick out numbers and space , rather than the networks that work worldwide cognition .
Amalric , a neuroscientist with the Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit at the NeuroSpin Center in France , told Live Science in an email that anterior study suggest that anearly childhood abilityto recognize numbers could possibly predict aptitude for perform more nonfigurative mathematical logical thinking later in life .
" Such covering are a bit far from our finale , " Amalric allege . " However , our findings are in accordance with previous close showing that the number sense is a good predictor of further mathematical skills . "
The study was published online today ( April 11 ) in the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .
