Hierarchical representations of relative numerical magnitudes in the human frontoparietal cortex
Our brains detect and analyze myriad features of the world, and we all know that it does much of this work automatically. One thing it can do, seemingly without effort, is detect how many things are in a set or collection. (This isn’t counting, which is different.) The ability is called “numerical competence” and is widespread in animals that include insects but apparently not the unelected trolls who are firing people at NSF and NIH. Seriously, numerical competence is important…
