this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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Your brain finds it easy to size up four objects but not five — here’s why (www.nature.com)
submitted 1 year ago by EdenRester@kbin.social to c/science@kbin.social
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Neuron activity shows that the brain uses different systems for counting up to four, and for five or more.

For more than a century, researchers have known that people are generally very good at eyeballing quantities of four or fewer items. But performance at sizing up numbers drops markedly — becoming slower and more prone to error — in the face of larger numbers.

Now scientists have discovered why: the human brain uses one mechanism to assess four or fewer items and a different one for when there are five or more. The findings, obtained by recording the neuron activity of 17 human participants, settle a long-standing debate on how the brain estimates how many objects a person sees. The results were published in Nature Human Behaviour on 2 October.

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[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well which neurons immediately decide to shove it off to the 4 or less neurons or the 5 or more neurons? Because they must be the ones running the show.

[–] DrYes@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Talking out of my ass here but I guess the initial information from the eyes goes to many pathways and reaches both and more. It's just a question of which ones react.