Counting and language

Abstract

Number words could be considered as a part of general verbal lexicon, although clinical and scientific data suggest that there are specific brain areas that are involved in specific aspects of number and language processing. In this fMRI study we examine the brain response to two number words generation tasks that should be closely related to the process of language generation: counting forward and counting backward. Our results imply that both investigated tasks strongly rely on brain structures usually related to language generation processes with a distinct activation of the prefronatal area for both counting tasks. Furthermore, we found differences in brain response among the investigated tasks regarding activation in the posterior part of the superior temporal gyrus and parietal cortex for the task of counting backward. Those findings suggest that the tasks of counting rely on established language-related brain areas with specific differences depending on cognitive content of the specified task.