Numerosities and Other Magnitudes in the Brains: A Comparative View

Lorenzi, Elena; Perrino, Matilde; Vallortígara, Giorgio

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.641994

Cited by 25 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 210 publications

(269 reference statements)

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“…It is worth stressing that although we identified a small portion of the zebrafish pallium which selectively responds to numerosity, it is unlikely that it would be the only one. Even in mammals, multiple regions in the brain, for example, the parietal cortex and the prefrontal cortex, are involved in the processing of numerosity (review in Lorenzi et al. 2021 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurons in the Dorso-Central Division of Zebrafish Pallium Respond to Change in Visual Numerosity

et al. 2021

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We found a region of the zebrafish pallium that shows selective activation upon change in the numerosity of visual stimuli. Zebrafish were habituated to sets of small dots that changed in individual size, position, and density, while maintaining their numerousness and overall surface. During dishabituation tests, zebrafish faced a change in number (with the same overall surface), in shape (with the same overall surface and number), or in size (with the same shape and number) of the dots, whereas, in a control group, zebrafish faced the same stimuli as during the habituation. Modulation of the expression of the immediate early genes c-fos and egr-1 and in situ hybridization revealed a selective activation of the caudal part of the dorso-central division of the zebrafish pallium upon change in numerosity. These findings support the existence of an evolutionarily conserved mechanism for approximate magnitude and provide an avenue for understanding its underlying molecular correlates.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurons in the Dorso-Central Division of Zebrafish Pallium Respond to Change in Visual Numerosity

et al. 2021

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“…We provided here a state of the art of our current knowledge of the behavior and neurobiology of number sense in fish, and in particular in zebrafish. Although neurobiological studies conducted in different species of vertebrates (mammals, birds and fish) highlighted an involvement of different brain structures in the elaboration of continuous and discrete (numerosity) magnitudes (see for reviews [ 40 , 41 , 150 ], the neural circuits have not been precisely described as of yet. Research in zebrafish could help to fill this gap allowing to characterize the precise location of the magnitude/number neurons in the brain and to explore the different connectivity associated with the brain regions involved.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whether zebrafish Dc is equivalent or homologous to regions in the mammalian and avian pallium [40,150] will require further investigation.…”

Section: Neural Correlates Of a Sense Of Discrete Magnitude (Number) In Zebrafishmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To what extent this area could be considered as an equivalent of the mammalian parietal and prefrontal cortex [ 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 148 ] or of the nidopallium caudolaterale of corvids [ 43 , 48 , 49 , 148 , 149 ] is difficult to say. Whether zebrafish Dc is equivalent or homologous to regions in the mammalian and avian pallium [ 40 , 150 ] will require further investigation.…”

Section: Neural Correlates Of a Sense Of Discrete Magnitude (Number) In Zebrafishmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Sense of Number in Fish, with Particular Reference to Its Neurobiological Bases

Messina

Potrich

Schiona

et al. 2021

Animals

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It is widely acknowledged that vertebrates can discriminate non-symbolic numerosity using an evolutionarily conserved system dubbed Approximate Number System (ANS). Two main approaches have been used to assess behaviourally numerosity in fish: spontaneous choice tests and operant training procedures. In the first, animals spontaneously choose between sets of biologically-relevant stimuli (e.g., conspecifics, food) differing in quantities (smaller or larger). In the second, animals are trained to associate a numerosity with a reward. Although the ability of fish to discriminate numerosity has been widely documented with these methods, the molecular bases of quantities estimation and ANS are largely unknown. Recently, we combined behavioral tasks with molecular biology assays (e.g c-fos and egr1 and other early genes expression) showing that the thalamus and the caudal region of dorso-central part of the telencephalon seem to be activated upon change in numerousness in visual stimuli. In contrast, the retina and the optic tectum mainly responded to changes in continuous magnitude such as stimulus size. We here provide a review and synthesis of these findings.

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“…An example is provided by studies on numerosity cognition. It is well known how numerosity discrimination could be affected by continuous variables (like total area, the density of elements, the contour length of the stimulus and so on) that co-vary with the numerosity itself (see Leibovich et al 2017 ; Lorenzi et al 2021 for general reviews). With a computational approach, we can create stimuli for which these variables are controlled.…”

Section: Complete Workflowmentioning

confidence: 99%

Steps towards a computational ethology: an automatized, interactive setup to investigate filial imprinting and biological predispositions

2021

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Soon after hatching, the young of precocial species, such as domestic chicks or ducklings, learn to recognize their social partner by simply being exposed to it (imprinting process). Even artificial objects or stimuli displayed on monitor screens can effectively trigger filial imprinting, though learning is canalized by spontaneous preferences for animacy signals, such as certain kinds of motion or a face-like appearance. Imprinting is used as a behavioural paradigm for studies on memory formation, early learning and predispositions, as well as number and space cognition, and brain asymmetries. Here, we present an automatized setup to expose and/or test animals for a variety of imprinting experiments. The setup consists of a cage with two high-frequency screens at the opposite ends where stimuli are shown. Provided with a camera covering the whole space of the cage, the behaviour of the animal is recorded continuously. A graphic user interface implemented in Matlab allows a custom configuration of the experimental protocol, that together with Psychtoolbox drives the presentation of images on the screens, with accurate time scheduling and a highly precise framerate. The setup can be implemented into a complete workflow to analyse behaviour in a fully automatized way by combining Matlab (and Psychtoolbox) to control the monitor screens and stimuli, DeepLabCut to track animals’ behaviour, Python (and R) to extract data and perform statistical analyses. The automated setup allows neuro-behavioural scientists to perform standardized protocols during their experiments, with faster data collection and analyses, and reproducible results.

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Numerosities and Other Magnitudes in the Brains: A Comparative View

Cited by 25 publications

References 210 publications

Neurons in the Dorso-Central Division of Zebrafish Pallium Respond to Change in Visual Numerosity

Neurons in the Dorso-Central Division of Zebrafish Pallium Respond to Change in Visual Numerosity

The Sense of Number in Fish, with Particular Reference to Its Neurobiological Bases

Steps towards a computational ethology: an automatized, interactive setup to investigate filial imprinting and biological predispositions

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