Distinct neural representations of perceptual and numerical absence in the human brain
The ability to represent absences is fundamental to human perception and cognition. Sensitivity to non-numerical absences depends on inferring a lack of sensory evidence, enabling the recognition of a lack of environmental resources or other objects. In turn, encoding numerical absence as a concept – in the form of the number zero – has enabled a multitude of technological and mathematical…
The human brain's capacity to represent absences is crucial for perception and cognition. Non-numerical absences, such as the absence of environmental resources or objects, depend on inferring a lack of sensory evidence. On the other hand, numerical absence, represented by the number zero, has led to numerous technological and mathematical advancements.
However, it is unclear whether perceptual and conceptual absences utilize overlapping or separate neural representations in the brain. To investigate this, researchers conducted three tasks using magnetoencephalography to characterize the neural representations of absence in both perceptual and numerical domains. Through multivariate decoding and Bayes factor analyses, they confirmed that previous research had revealed shared representations of numerical absence in both symbolic and non-symbolic formats.
However, they discovered that numerical absence representations differ from those triggered by non-numerical absences, even when accounting for stimulus-level confounds that may produce apparent similarities between perceptual absences and empty sets. This finding expands the boundary between perception and cognition to the domain of absence, shedding light on the unique mechanisms employed by the human brain to perceive and conceptualize absences.
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