Arabic Numerals and Chinese Numerals in Non-Precision Numerical Processing

Abstract

Numerical faculty is one of the most important human cognitive abilities, and the relationship between numerical processing and language ability is a focus of neuroscience. In this paper, fMRI was employed to explore the effect of using Arabic numerals and Chinese numerals as presented codes on numerical processing mode. The result revealed that different codes affect the number processing mode. Compared with the Arabic numerals task, more activations were found in the fusiform gyrus while less activation were found in parietal lobe which is the core region of numerical processing during the Chinese numerals task. The specific role the fusiform gyrus played in the Chinese numerical processing supports the viewpoint that numeral processing is closely related with the language ability.