ABSTRACT: Different species of animals can discriminate numerosity, the countable number of objects in a set. The representations of countable numerosities have been deciphered down to the level of single neurons. However, despite its importance for human number theory, a special numerical quantity, the empty set (numerosity zero), has remained largely unexplored. We explored the behavioral and neuronal representation of the empty set in carrion crows. Crows were trained to discriminate small numerosities including the empty set. Performance data showed a numerical distance effect for the empty set in one crow, suggesting that the empty set and countable numerosities are represented along the crows' “mental number line.” Single-cell recordings in the endbrain region nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL) showed a considerable proportion of NCL neurons tuned to the preferred numerosity zero. As evidenced by neuronal distance and size effects, NCL neurons integrated the empty set in the neural number line. A subsequent neuronal population analysis using a statistical classifier approach showed that the neuronal numerical representations were predictive of the crows' success in the task. These behavioral and neuronal data suggests that the conception of the empty set as a cognitive precursor of a zero-like number concept is not an exclusive property of the cerebral cortex of primates. Zero as a quantitative category cannot only be implemented in the layered neocortex of primates, but also in the anatomically distinct endbrain circuitries of birds that evolved based on convergent evolution.
SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: The conception of “nothing” as number “zero” is celebrated as one of the greatest achievements in mathematics. To explore whether precursors of zero-like concepts can be found in vertebrates with a cerebrum that anatomically differs starkly from our primate brain, we investigated this in carrion crows. We show that crows can grasp the empty set as a null numerical quantity that is mentally represented next to number one. Moreover, we show that single neurons in an associative avian cerebral region specifically respond to the empty set and show the same physiological characteristics as for countable quantities. This suggests that zero as a quantitative category can also be implemented in the anatomically distinct endbrain circuitries of birds that evolved based on convergent evolution.
edit: The idea of zero is always one of those things that seemed like it didn't need big brain mathematicians to develop, like the Pythagorean theorem being a common sense thing you naively get if you've ever walked somewhere with a diagonal shortcut. You have a practical need to understand the absence of something numerical if you are a social animal dealing with resource scarcity. If I forage 10 handfuls of berries and need to distribute that to my group of little monkey-ass things, I don't eat unless I understand that I can give away 9 handfuls but not 10. Even if I knew nothing else about mathematics I'd know 10-10 equals some kind of total absence of berries, with those still existing as a category without a quantity.
The most absolute 100% 𝒞𝑒𝓇𝓉𝒾𝒻𝒾𝑒𝒹 𝐻𝑒𝒶𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝐵𝒶𝒷𝒾𝑒𝓈™. The males are shits and they'll slice your leg up to the bone with their fangs if you turn your back on them, but the does are so lovely. All they want to do is kiss you for your salt.
I wonder if this will make a single western "journalist" reconsider being an Israeli puppet. Like if for no moral reason, this is how stupid the IDF thinks you are and they're completely right. Surely self-respect is still somewhere deep in their cold dead heart.
Cummies from Dummies is going to be the war memoir that launches a whole new generation of Grunt Style Guys mixing with Unvaxxed Sperm $3500/load Guys. We're witnessing the birth of a man-made horror beyond our comprehension with that shit.
The "edit-free video", with an obvious jump cut of course, the IDF released is some of the most pathetic propaganda I've seen from them. They deleted the video from twitter while Hasan Piker was critiquing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bewFx09kINA
Oof. Reddit removed me from one of my subreddits for protesting. The head mod is now a bot that sells damaged funko pops, the next mod hasn't been active in three months after quitting the website over it, and even the Judas who did a hostile takeover of the subreddit through the admins hasn't posted in almost two weeks. Posting frequency for the subreddit is like halved.
It was nice in Japan where there's no real limit on vehicular noise. A guy grilling sweet potatoes, an ultranationalist party screaming about immigrants, and an ambulance all have equal right to scream things over a megaphone.
![happybadger [he/him]](https://hexbear.net/pictrs/image/62b0eff3-f09e-422d-ae20-6509939e5a44.png?format=webp&thumbnail=128)
You will live in the ersatz economy. You will eat the non-white people.