‘Babies are natural with numbers’

LONDON: They may seem to just eat, cry, sleep and poo, but three-month-old babies may already be aware of how many animals are dangling from their mobiles.

A team of researchers at the University of Paris-South in France has found that babies have brain circuits dedicated to noticing quantity, adding weight to the argument that humans possess an innate sense of numbers.

"Our study shows that very young infants are sensitive to small changes in number, and the brain organisation that underlies the perception of object number and identity are established early during development," according to lead researcher Vronique Izard.

The researchers came to the conclusion after analysing an experiment. They fitted 36 infants with caps designed torecord their brain waves. They recorded the electrical activity evoked by the brain on the surface of the scalp as the three-month-old infants were watching a series of images on a screen.

The team found that the infant brain responds to both changes, but in different brain regions, which map onto the same regions that activate in adults, the PLos Biology journal has reported.