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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 22, 2026

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

Published on: August 1, 2018

Common substrate for mental arithmetic and finger representation in the parietal cortex.

Michael Andres¹, Nicolas Michaux, Mauro Pesenti

¹Institut de Recherche en Sciences Psychologiques, Université catholique de Louvain, Place Cardinal Mercier 10, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. andres.meh@gmail.com

|May 29, 2012

Summary

Fingers are crucial for learning math. This study used fMRI to show that the same brain areas used for finger recognition are also active during mental arithmetic in adults.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Psychology
Mathematics

Background:

Fingers have historically aided mathematical tasks.
Developmental studies highlight fingers' role in arithmetic acquisition.
Adult studies show finger movements interfere with arithmetic, suggesting shared neural resources.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the neural overlap between mental arithmetic and finger discrimination.
To determine if common brain regions support both finger representation and numerical operations.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed.
Participants solved subtraction and multiplication problems.
Participants performed finger discrimination tasks.

Main Results:

Mental arithmetic activated bilateral hIPS and PSPL.
Finger discrimination activated a widespread occipito-parieto-precentral network.
Conjunction analysis revealed overlapping activity in hIPS and PSPL for both tasks.
Pattern similarity was greater in the left hIPS and for subtraction.

Conclusions:

The brain's finger representation circuits also support adult arithmetic operations.
This provides the first neuroimaging evidence for shared neural substrates.
Findings suggest a fundamental link between embodied cognition and abstract mathematical thought.