Although Arabic numbers have been widely accepted as mathematical codes, these digits¹ are pronounced and written differently in various languages. Scientists have been curious about whether these digits are processed in the same way in the brains of people speaking different languages such as Chinese and English, which reflect differences in Eastern and Western cultures.

Now a Chinese research team has found some clues. Its findings appeared in the June 26 edition of the U.S. journal the Proceedings² of the National Academy of Sciences.

Using functional³ Magnetic Resonance⁴ Imaging (fMRI) to scan people's brains, the researchers found that native Chinese and English speakers treat numbers with different cortical parts of the brain.

In contrast to native English speakers who largely employ a language process that relies on the left perisylvian cortices for mental calculation such as a simple addition task, the researchers said, native Chinese speakers engage a visuo-promotor association network for the same task.

In both groups, the inferior parietal cortex of the brain was activated⁵ by a task for numerical quantity comparison, but furtheranalysis revealed a functional distinction between Chinese and English groups among the brain networks involved in the task.

The results indicate that different language systems, such as Chinese and English, can shape the way non-language-related content is processed. In other words, number processing differs in those with Chinese and English backgrounds, according to the team led by Yiyuan Tang, a professor at the Dalian University of Technology in China.

The team also noted⁶ that the brevity of the Chinese language for numbers allows for a larger short-term memory, and suggest that such faster processing in the language system might mean more efficient cortical activities in the brain.

Although language-specific processing may contribute to those differences, the learning environment and cultural variables may also have an influence on how numbers are acquired and represented in the brain. These factors may result in differential brain processes, the researchers added.

For example, reading and writing squared Chinese characters, which possess a high, nonlinear visual complexity⁷, as well as using an abacus⁸ since elementary school, may help build a "mental image" of numbers in the brain.

"Those well formulated⁹ learning processes, which are beyond reading systems and are both educationally and socially different, may lead to brain differences during number processing and other cognitive¹⁰ tasks," the researchers concluded.