The origins of number sense: a commentary on "Is there an innate sense of number in the brain?"

Abstract

The question of whether a "sense of number" is innate has been posed in a new article by Lorenzi et al. (2025). The article explores the behavioral and neurobiological evidence from newborn animals to delve into the evolutionary origins of a sense of number. Lorenzi et al.(2025) raises new questions, interpretations, and ideas for future work to understand how number sense has evolved in humans and nonhuman animals. In this commentary, I discuss the arguments for an innate number sense, evaluate the implications for numerical cognition, and suggest how future work could fill the current gaps in our knowledge.