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Science 7 May 1999:
Vol. 284. no. 5416, pp. 970 - 974
DOI: 10.1126/science.284.5416.970
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Reports

Sources of Mathematical Thinking: Behavioral and Brain-Imaging Evidence

S. Dehaene, 1* E. Spelke, 2 P. Pinel, 1 R. Stanescu, 1 S. Tsivkin 2

Does the human capacity for mathematical intuition depend on linguistic competence or on visuo-spatial representations? A series of behavioral and brain-imaging experiments provides evidence for both sources. Exact arithmetic is acquired in a language-specific format, transfers poorly to a different language or to novel facts, and recruits networks involved in word-association processes. In contrast, approximate arithmetic shows language independence, relies on a sense of numerical magnitudes, and recruits bilateral areas of the parietal lobes involved in visuo-spatial processing. Mathematical intuition may emerge from the interplay of these brain systems.

1 Unité INSERM 334, Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, CEA/DSV, 91401 Orsay Cedex, France.
2 Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dehaene{at}shfj.cea.fr

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