A biological foundation for spatial–numerical associations: the brain's asymmetric frequency tuning. Issue 1 (9th July 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Felisatti, Arianna; Laubrock, Jochen; Shaki, Samuel; Fischer, Martin H.
• Editors: Guida, Alessandro
• Is Part Of: Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Volume 1477:Issue 1(2020)
• Page Start: 44
• Page End: 53
• Publication Date: 2020-07-09
• Subjects: hemispheric asymmetry -- numerical cognition -- SNARC effect -- spatial frequency tuning -- spatial–numerical associations -- spatial vision; Medical sciences -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Science -- Periodicals; 610
• DOI: 10.1111/nyas.14418
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0077-8923

Abstract

Abstract: "Left" and "right" coordinates control our spatial behavior and even influence abstract thoughts. For number concepts, horizontal spatial–numerical associations (SNAs) have been widely documented: we associate few with left and many with right. Importantly, increments are universally coded on the right side even in preverbal humans and nonhuman animals, thus questioning the fundamental role of directional cultural habits, such as reading or finger counting. Here, we propose a biological, nonnumerical mechanism for the origin of SNAs on the basis of asymmetric tuning of animal brains for different spatial frequencies (SFs). The resulting selective visual processing predicts both universal SNAs and their context‐dependence. We support our proposal by analyzing the stimuli used to document SNAs in newborns for their SF content. As predicted, the SFs contained in visual patterns with few versus many elements preferentially engage right versus left brain hemispheres, respectively, thus predicting left‐versus rightward behavioral biases. Our "brain's asymmetric frequency tuning" hypothesis explains the perceptual origin of horizontal SNAs for nonsymbolic visual numerosities and might be extensible to the auditory domain. Abstract : Here, we propose a biological, nonnumerical mechanism for the origin of spatial–numerical associations (SNAs) based on asymmetric tuning of animal brains for different spatial frequencies (SFs). The resulting selective visual processing predicts both universal SNAs and their context‐dependence. We support our proposal by analyzing the stimuli used to document SNAs in newborns for their SF content.