most of the neurons in the human brain are

Neurons cannot be individually recorded through the skull. There are, however, few opportunities for direct measurements of human brain activity. 'So it is by detecting these signals directly that we can learn the most about cognition and perception.' 'The brain functions by means of electrical impulses,' says Simon Jacob. Jacob and his team first had to solve a fundamental problem.

Recording individual neurons is a challenge This has brought us a step closer to unravelling the mechanisms of cognitive functions and developing solutions when things go wrong with these brain functions, for example.' 'But until now, it was not possible to demonstrate conclusively how it works in humans. 'We already knew that animals processed numbers of objects in this way,' says Prof. To a somewhat lesser degree this was also the case when the subjects processed number symbols. Each one of these neurons was particularly active when its 'preferred' number of elements in a dot pattern was presented to the patient. The researchers found that individual neurons in the brains of participants were specialized in handling specific numbers. In a study published in the journal Cell Reports, a team of researchers and clinicians working with Simon Jacob, Professor of Translational Neurotechnology at the Department of Neurosurgery at TUM's university hospital Klinikum rechts der Isar, was able to show how the brain processes numbers. And it happens abstractly, for example when we see the symbol '8' or do complex calculations. It happens in a very concrete way when we count objects.

Most of the neurons in the human brain are