Influence of learning and experience on neuronal numerosity selectivity

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Andreas Nieder
• Subject Area: Cognitive, Systems and Behavioural Neurobiology
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 163453095

While recent years brought significant advances in our understanding of the neural substrates and mechanisms that represent numerical quantities, little is known about the development of numerosity selectivity in the brain. Work from our group has shown that single neurons in the parietal and frontal association cortices encode visual set sizes. So far, these investigations have been done exclusively in animals trained extensively to discriminate magnitude, raising the possibility that aspects of neuronal numerosity selectivity might be shaped by learning and experience. Whether numerosity detectors similar in number and response characteristics do also exist in naïve animals remains elusive. We now plan to adopt our well established protocols to address questions about the role of learning, experience and behavioral context for numerosity representations. Using multiple-electrode techniques, we will simultaneously record neuronal activity from the posterior parietal and prefrontal cortices, areas known to be important for numerical categories, in naïve and learning monkeys. This will allow us to find out if and how numerosity selectivity changes with training status and behavioral relevance, and how neuronal networks in different association cortices become modified by experience.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants