Mathematics is based on highly abstract principles and rules about how to structure, process, and evaluate numerical information. By teaching rhesus monkeys to arrange groups of dots according to their size on a screen, neurobiologists Sylvia Bongard and Andreas Nieder of the University of Tubingen in Germany have found that these animals can quickly master the concepts of quantities "greater than "and" less than " , obtaining 90% correct answers.
In addition, by analyzing brain activity while the monkeys performed the tests, the scientists identified individual neurons in the prefrontal cortex – where arithmetic power resides in humans – that were activated when it came to quantifying where there were more or fewer points.
? Non-human primates can perform basic arithmetic tasks typical of elementary school students, which suggests that there is an evolutionarily primitive system for non-verbal mathematical thinking , which we share with monkeys ,? the authors say in an article published today in the journal. PNAS . This "primitive version of human mathematical thinking" would have survival advantages, Nieder explains. For example, "it is important that a monkey knows the number of individuals in his group and compares it with the rival group, to decide whether it is better to attack or retreat ."
