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bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.05.08.723896

Neural evidence for an abstract sense of number in humans at birth

Buiatti, M.·Eccher, E.·Petrizzo, I.·Pradal, U.·Taddei, F.·Vallortigara, G.·Izard, V.·Piazza, M.
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Abstract

One of the most astonishing abilities documented in human newborns is that they can abstract numerosity - the number of items in sets - across sensory modalities. Its underlying neural mechanisms remain unknown. Using high-density EEG and a frequency-tagging paradigm, we measured neural entrainment to periodically presented visual arrays that were either numerically congruent or incongruent with previously familiarized and concurrently presented auditory sequences in 21 newborns (0-3 days old). The amplitude of neural entrainment to the visual arrays provided a robust index of cross-modal numerical congruency: it was significantly reduced for numerically congruent relative to incongruent stimuli, consistent with a cross-modal numerosity repetition-suppression mechanism. These findings identify a candidate neural mechanism supporting newborns ability to encode numerosity in an abstract supramodal format, and reinforce the view that number constitutes a foundational dimension of human perception since birth.

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Buiatti, M., Eccher, E., Petrizzo, I., Pradal, U., Taddei, F., Vallortigara, G., Izard, V., Piazza, M.. 2026-05-09. Neural evidence for an abstract sense of number in humans at birth. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.05.08.723896

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