Neuron activity in brain tied to thinking about math

MIT Technology Review : A study of a group of patients who have had epileptic seizures has provided some insight into one part of the brain tied to mathematical thought. Josef Parvizi of Stanford University and his colleagues used brain implants in the patients to record neuron activity in an area believed associated with thinking about math. Implants provide the benefit of targeted activity monitoring and allow the patients to behave more naturally than if they are connected to external instrumentation. Parvizi’s team compared the implant recordings with video recordings of the patients’ activities. When the patients were solving math problems or simply thinking about quantitative relationships like “more than” and “less than,” the neurons in the area were active. The result supports the connection between that area of the brain and mathematical thinking, and it shows that implants can be useful for identifying precise areas of the brain associated with particular types of thought.