Quantity Determination and the Distance Effect with Letters Numbers and Shapes: A Functional MR Imaging Study of Number Processing

摘要

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The ability to quantify, or to determine magnitude, is an important part of number processing, and the extent to which language and other cognitive abilities are involved with number processing is an area of interest. We compared activation patterns, reaction times, and accuracy as subjects determined stimulus magnitude by ordering letters, numbers, and shapes. A second goal was to define the brain regions involved in the distance effect (the farther apart numbers are, the faster subjects are at judging which number is larger) and whether this effect depended on stimulus type.