ArticleScience advances2019
Number detectors spontaneously emerge in a deep neural network designed for visual object recognition.
Article in Science advances, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 49 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
49 citing papers in PubMed, 126 citations in OpenAlex.
- Quantity Estimation by Repeated Comparative Judgments.Cognitive science · 2026Article
- Neural Tuning for Ordinal Processing: Convergent Patterns in Human Brains and Artificial Networks.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Bayesian estimation yields anti-Weber variability.PNAS nexus · 2025Article
- Personalized deep neural networks reveal mechanisms of math learning disabilities in children.Science advances · 2025Article
- Machine Learning Techniques for Simulating Human Psychophysical Testing of Low-Resolution Phosphene Face Images in Artificial Vision.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Symbolic numerical generalization through representational alignment.CogSci ... Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Cognitive Science Society (U.S.). Conference · 2025Article
- Article
- Estimating the distribution of numerosity and non-numerical visual magnitudes in natural scenes using computer vision.Psychological research · 2024Article
- Evaluating large language models in theory of mind tasks.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Innate responses to numerousness reveal neural activation in different brain regions in newly-hatched visually naïve chicks.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Shared functional specialization in transformer-based language models and the human brain.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Digital twins for understanding mechanisms of learning disabilities: Personalized deep neural networks reveal impact of neuronal hyperexcitability.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- A number sense as an emergent property of the manipulating brain.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Emergence of Emotion Selectivity in Deep Neural Networks Trained to Recognize Visual Objects.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Emergence of Emotion Selectivity in Deep Neural Networks Trained to Recognize Visual Objects.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- Disparate processing of numerosity and associated continuous magnitudes in rats.Science advances · 2024Article
- Spontaneous emergence of rudimentary music detectors in deep neural networks.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Emergence of number sense through the integration of multimodal information: developmental learning insights from neural network models.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Article
- Emergence of behavioral phenomena and adaptation effects in human numerosity decoder using recurrent neural networks.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Intelligent Recognition Using Ultralight Multifunctional Nano-Layered Carbon Aerogel Sensors with Human-Like Tactile Perception.Nano-micro letters · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Humans and animals have a "number sense," an innate capability to intuitively assess the number of visual items in a set, its numerosity. This capability implies that mechanisms to extract numerosity indwell the brain's visual system, which is primarily concerned with visual object recognition. Here, we show that network units tuned to abstract numerosity, and therefore reminiscent of real number neurons, spontaneously emerge in a biologically inspired deep neural network that was merely trained on visual object recognition. These numerosity-tuned units underlay the network's number discrimination performance that showed all the characteristics of human and animal number discriminations as predicted by the Weber-Fechner law. These findings explain the spontaneous emergence of the number sense based on mechanisms inherent to the visual system.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.