The Neurobiology Of How Brain Cells Process Mathematical Rules
Tuesday, January 19, 2010 - 16:49
in Mathematics & Economics
Children learn basic mathematical rules such as 'less than' and 'greater than' because they are the foundation of mathematical operations. As adults, intelligent behavior requires strategic processing of numbers and abstract quantity information, such as when we adopt a 'less than' strategy when shopping for a product to pay the smallest amount of money. When searching for a job our plan of action is 'greater than' and we strive to earn the largest sum of money. Neurobiologists in the laboratory of Andreas Nieder at the University of Tübingen writing in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) (January 18.-24. 2010) say they have shown for the first time how brain cells process simple mathematical rules. read more