Centre for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, Trento, Italy
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2017 Feb 19;373(1740). doi: 10.1098/rstb.2017.0120.
Evidence is discussed about the use of geometric information for spatial orientation and the association between space and numbers in non-human animals. A variety of vertebrate species can reorient using simple Euclidian geometry of the environmental surface layout, i.e. in accord with metric and sense (right/left) relationships among extended surfaces. There seems to be a primacy of geometric over non-geometric information in spatial reorientation and, possibly, innate encoding of the sense of direction. The hippocampal formation plays a key role in geometry-based reorientation in mammals, birds, amphibians and fish. Although some invertebrate species show similar behaviours, it is unclear whether the underlying mechanisms are the same as in vertebrates. As to the links between space and number representations, a disposition to associate numerical magnitudes onto a left-to-right-oriented mental number line appears to exist independently of socio-cultural factors, and can be observed in animals with very little numerical experience, such as newborn chicks and human infants. Such evidence supports a nativistic foundation of number-space association. Some speculation about the possible underlying mechanisms is provided together with consideration on the difficulties inherent to any comparison among species of different taxonomic groups.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The origins of numerical abilities'.
讨论了非人类动物中使用几何信息进行空间定向以及空间与数字之间的关联。多种脊椎动物可以使用环境表面布局的简单欧几里得几何重新定位，即符合扩展表面之间的度量和感觉（右/左）关系。在空间重新定位中，几何信息似乎优先于非几何信息，并且可能存在方向感的先天编码。海马体结构在哺乳动物、鸟类、两栖动物和鱼类的基于几何的重新定向中起着关键作用。尽管一些无脊椎动物表现出类似的行为，但尚不清楚其潜在机制是否与脊椎动物相同。至于空间和数字表示之间的联系，将数值大小分配到从左到右定向的心理数字线上的倾向似乎独立于社会文化因素存在，并且可以在几乎没有数字经验的动物中观察到，例如新生小鸡和人类婴儿。这种证据支持了数字-空间关联的天生基础。本文是关于“数字能力起源”的讨论会议议题的一部分，提供了一些关于可能的潜在机制的推测，并考虑了在不同分类群的物种之间进行任何比较所固有的困难。
