The Language-number Interface in the Brain: a Complex Parametric Study of Quantifiers and Quantities

Overview

Journal Front Evol Neurosci

Date 2012 Apr 4

PMID 22470338

Citations 11

Authors

Stefan Heim

Katrin Amunts

Dan Drai

Simon B Eickhoff

Sarah Hautvast

Yosef Grodzinsky

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The neural bases for numerosity and language are of perennial interest. In monkeys, neural separation of numerical Estimation and numerical Comparison has been demonstrated. As linguistic and numerical knowledge can only be compared in humans, we used a new fMRI paradigm in an attempt to dissociate Estimation from Comparison, and at the same time uncover the neural relation between numerosity and language. We used complex stimuli: images depicting a proportion between quantities of blue and yellow circles were coupled with sentences containing quantifiers that described them (e.g., "most/few of the circles are yellow"). Participants verified sentences against images. Both Estimation and Comparison recruited adjacent, partially overlapping bi-hemispheric fronto-parietal regions. Additional semantic analysis of positive vs. negative quantifiers involving the interpretation of quantity and numerosity specifically recruited left area 45. The anatomical proximity between numerosity regions and those involved in semantic analysis points to subtle links between the number system and language. Results fortify the homology of Estimation and Comparison between humans and monkeys.

Citing Articles

Quantifier processing and semantic flexibility in patients with aphasia.

Reissner B, Grohmann W, Peiseler N, Pinho J, Hussmann K, Werner C Front Psychol. 2024; 15:1328853.

PMID: 39100551 PMC: 11294751. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1328853.

So Many Are "Few," but so Few Are Also "Few" - Reduced Semantic Flexibility in bvFTD Patients.

Heim S, McMillan C, Olm C, Grossman M Front Psychol. 2020; 11:582.

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"Few" or "Many"? An Adaptation Level Theory Account for Flexibility in Quantifier Processing.

Heim S, Peiseler N, Bekemeier N Front Psychol. 2020; 11:382.

PMID: 32265772 PMC: 7099048. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00382.

Logical negation mapped onto the brain.

Grodzinsky Y, Deschamps I, Pieperhoff P, Iannilli F, Agmon G, Loewenstein Y Brain Struct Funct. 2019; 225(1):19-31.

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Neural correlates of fine-grained meaning distinctions: An fMRI investigation of scalar quantifiers.

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