Invited Speakers > Mauro Pesenti

Embodiment of number semantics in sensory-motor processes: Number-finger interactions

Mauro Pesenti

     Catholic University of Louvain

In this talk, I will present and summarize the many number-finger interactions that my research group has reported in the last years: (i) how the fixed order of fingers on the hand provides human beings with unique facilities to increment numerical changes or represent a cardinal value while solving arithmetic problems; (ii) how pointing actions support object enumeration and how numerical magnitudes interact with pointing-reaching actions; and finally (iii) how number processing has been found to interact with the execution or perception of grasping movements, indicating that the adjustment of the hand grip to match object size shares processes with the computation of number magnitude estimates. From these data, I will argue that the way we express numerical concepts physically, by raising fingers while counting, pointing to objects, or using grip aperture to describe magnitudes, leads to embodied representations of numbers and calculation procedures in the adult brain.