The Number Sense -轻识

Our understanding of how the human brain performs mathematical calculations is far from complete, but in recent years there have been many exciting breakthroughs by scientists all over the world. Now, in The Number Sense, Stanislas Dehaene offers a fascinating look at this recent research, in an enlightening exploration of the mathematical mind. Dehaene begins with the eye-opening discovery that animals--including rats, pigeons, raccoons, and chimpanzees--can perform simple mathematical calculations, and that human infants also have a rudimentary number sense. Dehaene suggests that this rudimentary number sense is as basic to the way the brain understands the world as our perception of color or of objects in space, and, like these other abilities, our number sense is wired into the brain. These are but a few of the wealth of fascinating observations contained here. We also discover, for example, that because Chinese names for numbers are so short, Chinese people can remember up to nine or ten digits at a time--English-speaking people can only remember seven. The book also explores the unique abilities of idiot savants and mathematical geniuses, and we meet people whose minute brain lesions render their mathematical ability useless. This new and completely updated edition includes all of the most recent scientific data on how numbers are encoded by single neurons, and which brain areas activate when we perform calculations. Perhaps most important, The Number Sense reaches many provocative conclusions that will intrigue anyone interested in learning, mathematics, or the mind. "A delight." --Ian Stewart, New Scientist "Read The Number Sense for its rich insights into matters as varying as the cuneiform depiction of numbers, why Jean Piaget's theory of stages in infant learning is wrong, and to discover the brain regions involved in the number sense." --The New York Times Book Review "Dehaene weaves the latest technical research into a remarkably lucid and engrossing investigation. Even readers normally indifferent to mathematics will find themselves marveling at the wonder of minds making numbers." --Booklist

斯坦尼斯拉斯·迪昂（Stanislas Dehaene），全世界很具影响力的认知神经科学家之一，欧洲脑科学研究领域的领头人，世界脑科学领域大师级的人物。虽然本科主修数学专业，但对神经科学抱有极大兴趣，继而跟随认知神经科学创始人乔治·米勒（George Miller）、转换生成语法理论创始人诺姆·乔姆斯基（Noam Chomsky）、认知发展理论创始人让·皮亚杰（Jean Piaget）三位大师的学生杰柯·梅勒（Jacques Mehler）学习。2014年，与其他两位科学家共同获得有“神经科学界诺贝尔奖”之称的“大脑奖”（The Brain Prize）。该奖项在脑科学领域地位很高、分量很重，显示了迪昂在神经科学领域过人的天赋和巨大影响力。已在《自然》（Nature）、《科学》（Science）等知名学术杂志上发表300多篇文章，是脑科学及数学认知领...