Brain Inspired

BI 137 Brian Butterworth: Can Fish Count?

May 27, 2022

01:17:49

Creator website

Highlights

AI Chapters

Episode notes

The Structastic Nature of Neural Networks

04:02

Do We Need to Count?

02:48

Is There a Relationship Between the Counting Ability and the Accumulator Mechanism?

01:57

Introduction

3min

Counting and Numerical Abilities

5min

The Relationship Between Language and Dislexia

3min

Is There a Stigma to Deslexia?

3min

How to Pronounce a Neuro Transmitter

4min

The Relationship Between Language and a Counting

2min

Is There a Difference Between Language and Counting Words?

5min

How Many Dots Do You See?

2min

The Origins of Language

3min

10.

The Prodigious Calculator Isn't Using Words

3min

11.

A Languagend and Numbers

2min

12.

Is There a Relationship Between the Counting Ability and the Accumulator Mechanism?

2min

13.

Is It the Pfish That You're Working On, or Thewew?

3min

14.

The Relationship Between Timing and Counting

1min

15.

The Basics of Fish Subtraction

5min

16.

Do We Need to Count?

3min

17.

Goble Maps Are Just Numbers

3min

18.

Fish Can Be Pretty Good at Numbering

2min

19.

Do Small Fish Respond to Numerosity?

4min

20.

How Much Mathematical Ability Is Inherent in Animals?

5min

21.

How Do Numbers Work in a Numerical Network?

3min

22.

The Structastic Nature of Neural Networks

4min

23.

Is There Evidence of Counting?

2min

24.

Are Numbers Real?

5min

Check out my free video series about what's missing in AI and Neuroscience

Support the show to get full episodes, full archive, and join the Discord community.

Brian Butterworth is Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Neuropsychology at University College London. In his book, Can Fish Count?: What Animals Reveal About Our Uniquely Mathematical Minds, he describes the counting and numerical abilities across many different species, suggesting our ability to count is evolutionarily very old (since many diverse species can count). We discuss many of the examples in his book, the mathematical disability dyscalculia and its relation to dyslexia, how to test counting abilities in various species, how counting may happen in brains, the promise of creating artificial networks that can do math, and many more topics.

Brian's website: The Mathematical Brain
Twitter: @b_butterworth
The book:
- Can Fish Count?: What Animals Reveal About Our Uniquely Mathematical Minds

0:00 - Intro 3:19 - Why Counting? 5:31 - Dyscalculia 12:06 - Dyslexia 19:12 - Counting 26:37 - Origins of counting vs. language 34:48 - Counting vs. higher math 46:46 - Counting some things and not others 53:33 - How to test counting 1:03:30 - How does the brain count? 1:13:10 - Are numbers real?