Contribution of the right intraparietal sulcus to numerosity and length processing: An fMRI-guided TMS study

The critical involvement of the left and right intraparietal sulci (IPS) in numerosity and length processing was tested with neuro-navigated repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). Participants had to categorize linear arrays of dots as containing "few" or "many" dots, and filled rectangles as "short" or "long". The stimulation sites were determined for each individual participant by identifying the IPS areas showing peak activity during a number comparison task in earlier functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies. Compared to the stimulation of the vertex chosen as a control site, rTMS over the right IPS increased the error rate in both tasks. This result indicates that the integrity of the right IPS is a necessary condition not only for discriminating numerosities but also for performing accurate judgements of lengths. We propose that these two processes rely on a common representation and/or mechanism in the right IPS.

[1]  Philippe Pinel,et al.  Tuning Curves for Approximate Numerosity in the Human Intraparietal Sulcus , 2004, Neuron.

[2]  Elizabeth S. Spelke,et al.  Spontaneous mapping of number and space in adults and young children , 2009, Cognition.

[3]  Bert Reynvoet,et al.  Different magnitude representations in left and right hemisphere: Evidence from the visual half field technique , 2009, Laterality.

[4]  Michael Andres,et al.  Mode-dependent and mode-independent representations of numerosity in the right intraparietal sulcus , 2010, NeuroImage.

[5]  Vincent Walsh.  A theory of magnitude: common cortical metrics of time, space and quantity , 2003, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[6]  John C. Marshall,et al.  When Right Goes Left: An Investigation of Line Bisection in a Case of Visual Neglect , 1989, Cortex.

[7]  E. Erdfelder.  Experimental Psychology: A successful transition , 2007 .

[8]  Avishai Henik,et al.  Virtual Dyscalculia Induced by Parietal-Lobe TMS Impairs Automatic Magnitude Processing , 2007, Current Biology.

[9]  Andreas Nieder,et al.  Neuronal population coding of continuous and discrete quantity in the primate posterior parietal cortex , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[10]  Sven Bestmann,et al.  Concurrent brain-stimulation and neuroimaging for studies of cognition , 2009, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[11]  Michael Andres,et al.  Hemispheric lateralization of number comparison. , 2005, Brain research. Cognitive brain research.

[12]  FRANCIS GALTON,et al.  Visualised Numerals , 1880, Nature.

[13]  V. Dormal,et al.  Common and Specific Contributions of the Intraparietal Sulci to Numerosity and Length Processing , 2009, NeuroImage.

[14]  Klaus Willmes,et al.  On the functional role of human parietal cortex in number processing: How gender mediates the impact of a ‘virtual lesion’ induced by rTMS , 2006, Neuropsychologia.

[15]  Marie-Pascale Noël,et al.  Images of numbers, or “when 98 is upper left and 6 sky blue” , 1992, Cognition.

[16]  V. Walsh,et al.  The parietal cortex and the representation of time, space, number and other magnitudes , 2009, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

[17]  Juha Silvanto,et al.  Double Dissociation of Format-Dependent and Number-Specific Neurons in Human Parietal Cortex , 2010, Cerebral cortex.

[18]  K. Priftis,et al.  Brain damage: Neglect disrupts the mental number line , 2002, Nature.

[19]  T. Paus,et al.  Transcranial magnetic stimulation and the challenge of coil placement: A comparison of conventional and stereotaxic neuronavigational strategies , 2008, Human brain mapping.

[20]  Benoit M. Macq,et al.  Registration and real-time visualization of transcranial magnetic stimulation with 3-D MR images , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[21]  G. Orban,et al.  Parietal Representation of Symbolic and Nonsymbolic Magnitude , 2003, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[22]  B. Fierro,et al.  Paired pulse TMS over the right posterior parietal cortex modulates visuospatial perception , 2006, Journal of the Neurological Sciences.

[23]  Michael Andres,et al.  Dissociation of numerosity and duration processing in the left intraparietal sulcus: A transcranial magnetic stimulation study , 2008, Cortex.

[24]  E. Olivier,et al.  Event-related TMS over the right posterior parietal cortex induces ipsilateral visuo-spatial interference , 2001, Neuroreport.

[25]  Alvaro Pascual-Leone,et al.  Handbook of transcranial magnetic stimulation , 2002 .

[26]  Olivier Houdeé,et al.  Negative priming effect after inhibition of number/length interference in a Piaget-like task , 2001 .

[27]  Silke M. Göbel,et al.  Parietal rTMS distorts the mental number line: Simulating ‘spatial’ neglect in healthy subjects , 2006, Neuropsychologia.

[28]  Valérie Dormal,et al.  Numerosity-length interference: a Stroop experiment. , 2007, Experimental psychology.

[29]  Felix Blankenburg,et al.  Concurrent TMS and fMRI: Methods and Current Advances , 2008 .

[30]  C. Umilta,et al.  Two orienting mechanisms in posterior parietal lobule: An rTMS study of the Simon and SNARC effects , 2007, Cognitive neuropsychology.

[31]  R. Shaw,et al.  Precocious Thoughts on Number: The Long and the Short of It. , 1972 .

[32]  Marinella Cappelletti,et al.  rTMS over the intraparietal sulcus disrupts numerosity processing , 2007, Experimental Brain Research.

[33]  Brian Butterworth,et al.  Exact and Approximate Judgements of Visual and Auditory Numerosity: an Fmri Study , 2006 .

[34]  Karl Zilles,et al.  The human parietal cortex: a novel approach to its architectonic mapping. , 2003, Advances in neurology.

[35]  V. Walsh,et al.  State-dependency in brain stimulation studies of perception and cognition , 2008, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[36]  Andreas Nieder,et al.  Contributions of primate prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices to length and numerosity representation. , 2009, Journal of neurophysiology.

[37]  Georges Ifrah,et al.  The Universal History of Numbers , 1998 .

[38]  S. Dehaene,et al.  Functional and Structural Alterations of the Intraparietal Sulcus in a Developmental Dyscalculia of Genetic Origin , 2003, Neuron.

[39]  David A. Boas,et al.  Near-infrared spectroscopy shows right parietal specialization for number in pre-verbal infants , 2010, NeuroImage.

[40]  R. C. Oldfield.  The assessment and analysis of handedness: the Edinburgh inventory. , 1971, Neuropsychologia.

[41]  E. Wassermann,et al.  A safety screening questionnaire for transcranial magnetic stimulation , 2001, Clinical Neurophysiology.

[42]  Avishai Henik,et al.  Notation-Dependent and -Independent Representations of Numbers in the Parietal Lobes , 2007, Neuron.

[43]  N. Bien.  Parietal cortex and spatial cognition : combining evidence from neuroimaging and functional brain stimulation , 2011 .

[44]  I. Derakhshan.  Overestimation of numerical distances in the left side of space , 2005, Neurology.

[45]  E K Warrington,et al.  Tachistoscopic number estimation in patients with unilateral cerebral lesions. , 1967, Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry.

[46]  G. Vallar,et al.  Parietal versus temporal lobe components in spatial cognition: Setting the mid-point of a horizontal line. , 2009, Journal of neuropsychology.

[47]  Juha Silvanto,et al.  The role of the angular gyrus in the modulation of visuospatial attention by the mental number line , 2009, NeuroImage.

[48]  S. Dehaene,et al.  A Magnitude Code Common to Numerosities and Number Symbols in Human Intraparietal Cortex , 2007, Neuron.

[49]  Daniel Ansari,et al.  Common and segregated neural pathways for the processing of symbolic and nonsymbolic numerical magnitude: An fMRI study , 2010, NeuroImage.

[50]  Daniel Ansari,et al.  Developmental Specialization in the Right Intraparietal Sulcus for the Abstract Representation of Numerical Magnitude , 2010, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[51]  Marinella Cappelletti,et al.  The middle house or the middle floor: Bisecting horizontal and vertical mental number lines in neglect , 2007, Neuropsychologia.

[52]  A. Pascual-Leone,et al.  Studies in Cognition: The Problems Solved and Created by Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation , 2003, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[53]  Stanislas Dehaene,et al.  Two mental calculation systems: A case study of severe acalculia with preserved approximation , 1991, Neuropsychologia.

[54]  K. Zilles,et al.  Line bisection judgments implicate right parietal cortex and cerebellum as assessed by fMRI , 2000, Neurology.

[55]  Wim Fias,et al.  Representation of Number in Animals and Humans: A Neural Model , 2004, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.