08.04.2019

Dr. Mojtaba Soltanlou has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship from the European Commission

Project: The Role of Prefrontal Cortex in Functional Brain Organization of Number Processing in Infants

Dr. Soltanlou received one of the most well-known funding from the European Commission – the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship – leading him to the Havard University for the next two years, before returning to the Tübingen University, where he works in the working group of Prof. Nürk.

One of the most critical quests of neuroscientists is the discovery of the origin of human cognition, such as number processing. 

Previous studies have shown that the ability to process numerical information in adulthood can be traced back to the first months of life. Although the natural number concept is not expressed until childhood, it is built upon a nonsymbolic competency (e.g., child A has more toys than child B) that has an evolutionary origin and is available early in life.

Studies in adults and children reveal the critical role of prefrontal cognitive processes for number processing and arithmetic, in addition to the parietal magnitude processes. We know nothing about the prefrontal engagement in number processing in the first months of life. So, by means of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), Dr. Soltanlou will investigate the role of prefrontal cognitive processes during cognitive and number processing in infancy, which might be crucial to explaining human learning.