{"id":279589,"date":"2024-11-18T12:00:20","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T12:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=279589"},"modified":"2024-11-01T06:04:40","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T06:04:40","slug":"how-the-human-brain-contends-with-the-strangeness-of-zero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/11\/how-the-human-brain-contends-with-the-strangeness-of-zero\/","title":{"rendered":"How the Human Brain Contends with the Strangeness of Zero"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<div class=\"post__title__excerpt wysiwyg p italic mb1 mt025 pr2 o4 theme__text \"><em>Zero, which was invented late in history, is special among numbers. New studies are uncovering how the brain creates something out of nothing.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div>\n<div style=\"width: 2880px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-279589-1\" width=\"2880\" height=\"1620\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/ZeroNeuroscience-crMaggieChiang-Lede.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/ZeroNeuroscience-crMaggieChiang-Lede.mp4\" >https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/ZeroNeuroscience-crMaggieChiang-Lede.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">In some ways, zero is just like any other number on a number line. But a new study suggests that the mind may treat the symbol for absence differently. Maggie Chiang for <em>Quanta Magazine<\/em><\/div>\n<div class=\"post__sidebar__content\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<section class=\"outer mha js-router-anchors outer--content\">\n<div class=\"flex-auto mha container--xs \">\n<div class=\"post__content__section wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline\" data-role=\"selectable\">\n<div class=\"post__content wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline \">\n<p><em>18 Oct 2024 &#8211; <\/em>Around 2,500 years ago, Babylonian traders in Mesopotamia impressed two slanted wedges into clay tablets. The shapes represented a placeholder digit, squeezed between others, to distinguish numbers such as 50, 505 and 5,005. An elementary version of the concept of zero was born.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of years later, in seventh-century India, zero took on a new identity. No longer a placeholder, the digit acquired a value and found its place on the number line, before 1. Its invention went on to spark historic advances in science and technology. From zero sprang the laws of the universe, number theory and modern mathematics.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cZero is, by many mathematicians, definitely considered one of the greatest \u2014 or maybe the greatest \u2014 achievement of mankind,\u201d said the neuroscientist\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/homepages.uni-tuebingen.de\/andreas.nieder\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Andreas Nieder<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> (opens a new tab)<\/span><\/a>, who studies animal and human intelligence at the University of T\u00fcbingen in Germany. \u201cIt took an eternity until mathematicians finally invented zero as a number.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps that\u2019s no surprise given that the concept can be difficult for the brain to grasp. It takes children longer to understand and use zero than other numbers, and it takes adults longer to read it than other small numbers. That\u2019s because to understand zero, our mind must create something out of nothing. It must recognize absence as a mathematical object.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s like an extra level of abstraction away from the world around you,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/benjybarnett.github.io\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Benjy Barnett<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> (opens a new tab)<\/span><\/a>, who is completing graduate work on consciousness at University College London. Nonzero numbers map onto countable objects in the environment: three chairs, each with four legs, at one table. With zero, he said, \u201cwe have to go one step further and say, \u2018OK, there wasn\u2019t anything there. Therefore, there must be zero of them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_279595\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Chaturbhuj_Temple_at_Gwalior-zero-quanta.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-279595\" class=\"wp-image-279595\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Chaturbhuj_Temple_at_Gwalior-zero-quanta-1024x432.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"295\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Chaturbhuj_Temple_at_Gwalior-zero-quanta-1024x432.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Chaturbhuj_Temple_at_Gwalior-zero-quanta-300x127.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Chaturbhuj_Temple_at_Gwalior-zero-quanta-768x324.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Chaturbhuj_Temple_at_Gwalior-zero-quanta-1536x648.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Chaturbhuj_Temple_at_Gwalior-zero-quanta.webp 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-279595\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Inside the Chaturbhuj Temple in India (left), a wall inscription features the oldest known instance of the digit zero, dated to 876 CE (right). It is part of the number 270. From: Left &#8211; Creative Commons \/ ccarlstead<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"acf-content scale1 mt2\">\n<section class=\"outer mha js-router-anchors outer--content\">\n<div class=\"flex-auto mha container--xs \">\n<div class=\"post__content__section wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline\" data-role=\"selectable\">\n<div class=\"post__content wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline \">\n<p>In recent years, research started to uncover <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/why-the-human-brain-perceives-small-numbers-better-20231109\/\" >how the human brain represents numbers<\/a>, but no one examined how it handles zero. Now two independent studies, led by Nieder and Barnett, respectively, have shown that the brain codes for zero much as it does for other numbers, on a mental number line. But, one of the studies found, zero also holds a special status in the brain.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that [zero] represents nothing is a contradiction in itself,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/pnc.unipd.it\/semenza-carlo\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Carlo Semenza<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> (opens a new tab)<\/span><\/a>, a professor emeritus of neuroscience at the University of Padua in Italy who wasn\u2019t involved in either study. \u201cIt looks like it is concrete because people put it on the number line \u2014 but then it doesn\u2019t exist. \u2026 That is fascinating, absolutely fascinating.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new studies are the first to reveal what goes on in the brain when a person thinks about zero, and they bring up broader questions about how the mind handles absence \u2014 a pursuit that would have pleased Jean-Paul Sartre, the 20th-century existentialist who claimed that \u201cnothingness carries being in its heart.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Thinking About Nothing<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The idea of zero, originally called <em>sunya<\/em> for \u201cempty\u201d in Sanskrit, first made its way out of India to the Arab world. Then, in the 13th century, a humble traveler by the name of Fibonacci picked up the idea in North Africa and brought it back to medieval Europe, along with the base-10 number system and Indo-Arabic numerals.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_279597\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/zero-quanta-scaled.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-279597\" class=\"wp-image-279597\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/zero-quanta-1024x595.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/zero-quanta-1024x595.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/zero-quanta-300x174.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/zero-quanta-768x446.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/zero-quanta-1536x893.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/zero-quanta-2048x1190.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-279597\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mark Belan\/Quanta Magazine<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"acf-content scale1 mt2\">\n<section class=\"outer mha js-router-anchors outer--content\">\n<div class=\"flex-auto mha container--xs \">\n<div class=\"post__content__section wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline\" data-role=\"selectable\">\n<div class=\"post__content wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline \">\n<p>At first, zero caused confusion. \u201cIts ability to represent \u2018nothing\u2019 and enable complex mathematical operations challenged deeply ingrained theological and philosophical ideas,\u201d Nieder said. Particularly due to the influence of the church, philosophers and theologians associated \u201cnothing\u201d with chaos and disorder and were disinclined to accept it. Many even feared it, considering it \u201cthe devil\u2019s number,\u201d Barnett said.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"post__aside mb2 relative mha post__aside--right hide-on-print\">\n<div class=\"post__aside__pullquote relative\">\n<div class=\"pullquote theme__text mb2 align-c\">\n<div class=\"mb1\">\n<blockquote><p><em><strong>He suspected that if zero is special in history and math, then the brain must process it specially, too.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>But soon, merchants recognized that zero was valuable for business. By the 15th century, it had become widespread in commerce, finance and mathematics across Europe, but never shed its aura of mystery. \u201cIf you multiply a number by zero, it disappears. That was really hard to understand,\u201d Semenza said. That feeling persists today: Although zero is now pervasive and seemingly simple, math students and mathematicians alike continue to wrestle with it.<\/p>\n<p>Zero is the \u201ceccentric uncle in the family of numbers,\u201d Nieder said. To use zero in calculations, mathematicians had to establish all sorts of rules. You can\u2019t divide any other number by zero, but you can divide zero by any other number. A nonzero number to the power of zero gives you one; zero to a power of a nonzero number gives you zero, but zero to a power of zero gives you a calculator error \u2014 and a headache.<\/p>\n<p>Yet \u201cthe idea of zero, or something that plays the role of a zero, somehow appears all over math,\u201d said <a href=\"https:\/\/neilbarton.net\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Neil Barton<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> (opens a new tab)<\/span><\/a>, a philosopher of math at the National University of Singapore. Without it, modern mathematics wouldn\u2019t exist \u2014 you wouldn\u2019t be able to solve a function, do calculus or distinguish between 1 and 1 million.<\/p>\n<p>However you look at it, zero is unique. For researchers interested in how the brain handles numbers, zero was \u201cthe most fascinating number of them all,\u201d Nieder said. He suspected that if zero is special in history and math, then the brain must process it specially, too.<\/p>\n<p>Nieder\u2019s group has previously shown that some neurons in the brain have <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/why-the-human-brain-perceives-small-numbers-better-20231109\/\" >favorite numbers<\/a>. Some favor 3 and will fire more rapidly when presented with three apples, for example, than they would with two or four \u2014 and much more than with five or seven. The more rapidly neurons fire, the more interested they are in a specific number. This is true not only in humans but also in other animals. While nonhuman animals don\u2019t understand numbers when they\u2019re represented as digits \u2014 an entirely human construct \u2014 they can estimate quantities, also known as numerosities. Researchers previously found that monkeys and crows have neurons that are <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/animals-can-count-and-use-zero-how-far-does-their-number-sense-go-20210809\/\" >specifically tuned to the numerosity zero<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But until very recently no one had ever probed for the neural basis of zero in humans.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>\u201cJust Another Number\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Barnett was interested in absence before he was interested in zero. The majority of consciousness and perception science over the last century has focused on what happens in the brain when we detect something in the environment. \u201cBut this ignores the whole other side of things,\u201d he said, \u201cwhich is that you can often have experiences of something not being there.\u201d For example, if you go to grab your keys and they aren\u2019t where you left them on the hallway table, you experience absence.<\/p>\n<p>Previously, researchers assumed that absence was represented in the brain by neurons not firing. But recent studies have shown that the brain encodes absence with unique neural patterns. To push this work further, Barnett turned to zero, \u201ca concept of absence that all of us are familiar with,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>A few years ago, Barnett began his absence studies with the number zero. He recruited 24 participants to perform tasks related to zero as they sat in a magnetoencephalography scanner, which \u201clooks like these old-school hairdresser\u201d machines, he said. As neurons fire, they generate voltages, which in turn create a magnetic field that can be detected by the machine. By analyzing the magnetic fields, researchers can learn how populations of neurons respond when prompted to think about specific topics, such as zero.<\/p>\n<p>Barnett and his adviser at University College London, <a href=\"https:\/\/metacoglab.org\/people\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Stephen Fleming<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> (opens a new tab)<\/span><\/a>, were looking for evidence of the numerical distance effect, a phenomenon that occurs when the brain processes nonzero numbers. Basically, the brain can more easily distinguish between two numbers if they are far apart on the number line than if they are close together. So it confuses 6 and 7 more often than 6 and 9. The researchers figured that if the brain processes zero similarly to other numbers, it should also show the numerical distance effect.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, in results published in <em>Current Biology<\/em> in August, Barnett and Fleming concluded that <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.cub.2024.06.079\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the brain treats zero<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> (opens a new tab)<\/span><\/a>, both as a digit and as a quantity, in much the same way that it treats the other numbers. \u201cZero is represented on this neural number line,\u201d Barnett said.<\/p>\n<p>Nieder, for his part, has been obsessed with zero and absence for the better part of a decade. In 2016, he proposed that the neurological mechanisms that encode absence may be shared with those that encode zero. He hypothesized that <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.tics.2016.08.008\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">zero must have evolved<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> (opens a new tab)<\/span><\/a> from more fundamental representations of perceptual absence. First, the brain had to understand the absence of a stimulus, like a light being off; only then could it recognize \u201cnothing\u201d as a category akin to \u201csomething,\u201d but representing everything that isn\u2019t something. Finally, it had to turn \u201cnothing\u201d into a quantitative concept. By understanding how the brain encodes zero, he believed, we might be able to understand how the brain deals with absence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"postBody\" class=\"theme__background-background theme__text\">\n<div class=\"acf-content scale1 mt2\">\n<section class=\"outer mha js-router-anchors outer--content\">\n<div class=\"flex-auto mha container--xs \">\n<div class=\"post__content__section wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline\" data-role=\"selectable\">\n<div class=\"post__content wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline \">\n<p>Since 2015, Nieder has collaborated with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ukbonn.de\/en\/epileptology\/workgroups\/mormann-workgroup-cognitive-und-clinical-neurophysiology\/\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Florian Mormann<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> (opens a new tab)<\/span><\/a>, the head of the cognitive and clinical neurophysiology group at the University of Bonn, who treats epilepsy patients. For their treatment, these patients have electrodes implanted in their brains, which Mormann can use to collect neuroscience research data with patient consent.<\/p>\n<p>Mormann recorded brain activity from single neurons as the patients performed number-related tasks. In the analysis, he and Nieder <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41562-023-01709-3\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">first focused on nonzero numbers<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> (opens a new tab)<\/span><\/a> and found that the brain processes large numbers differently than smaller ones. Then they went back to their data to focus only on zero.<\/p>\n<p>As they reported in <em>Current Biology<\/em> in September, Nieder and Mormann found the same thing Barnett had, that <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.cub.2024.08.041\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">zero exhibited a numerical distance effect<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> (opens a new tab)<\/span><\/a> in the brain. That means that, to the brain, zero is just another number, Nieder said.<\/p>\n<p>Or is it?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen one looks closely,\u201d he said, \u201czero is still an outlier\u00a0among the other numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What Makes Zero Special<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Nieder\u2019s team found some differences between the way the brain represents zero and the way it handles other numbers. For one thing, more neurons had zero as their preferred number than any other small number. Because there are more neurons that code for zero, the brain can represent the empty set with more accuracy than it can represent other small quantities, they found.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cZero is encoded together with other small numbers, but it is\u00a0represented more distinctly compared to them,\u201d Nieder said. \u201cIt is simply an eccentric outlier and represented as such in the brain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, they didn\u2019t find any difference in accuracy in the way the brain represented the digit version of zero \u2014 0 \u2014 compared to the other digits. \u201cAll number symbols are abstractions, functioning as formal symbols within a symbolic system,\u201d Nieder said. \u201cAs such, zero is treated like any other formal number.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_279594\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/BakhshaliManuscriptfull_crThe-Bodleian-Libraries-University-of-Oxford-zero-quanta.webp\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-279594\" class=\"wp-image-279594\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/BakhshaliManuscriptfull_crThe-Bodleian-Libraries-University-of-Oxford-zero-quanta-1024x591.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"289\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/BakhshaliManuscriptfull_crThe-Bodleian-Libraries-University-of-Oxford-zero-quanta-1024x591.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/BakhshaliManuscriptfull_crThe-Bodleian-Libraries-University-of-Oxford-zero-quanta-300x173.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/BakhshaliManuscriptfull_crThe-Bodleian-Libraries-University-of-Oxford-zero-quanta-768x443.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/BakhshaliManuscriptfull_crThe-Bodleian-Libraries-University-of-Oxford-zero-quanta-1536x887.webp 1536w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/BakhshaliManuscriptfull_crThe-Bodleian-Libraries-University-of-Oxford-zero-quanta.webp 1800w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-279594\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">In the Bakhshali manuscript, an Indian mathematical text dated to the fourth century, a placeholder zero is represented as a dot.<br \/>The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"acf-content scale1 mt2\">\n<section class=\"outer mha js-router-anchors outer--content\">\n<div class=\"flex-auto mha container--xs \">\n<div class=\"post__content__section wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline\" data-role=\"selectable\">\n<div class=\"post__content wysiwyg p theme__anchors--underline \">\n<p>Nieder\u2019s findings are slightly different than Barnett\u2019s. Barnett didn\u2019t observe any distinctions, even slight ones, in the way zero was represented compared to other numbers.<\/p>\n<p>What could explain the discrepancy? After being asked to look at each other\u2019s papers, Barnett and Nieder agreed that their findings are complementary. Any differences, they said, most likely have to do with scale: Barnett\u2019s study looked at large populations of neurons, while Nieder\u2019s looked at single neurons.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dyscalculia.org\/experts\/brian-butterworth\"  target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brian Butterworth<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> (opens a new tab)<\/span><\/a>, a cognitive neuroscientist at University College London, noted that the studies\u2019 differences could instead be due to the studied brain area. Barnett\u2019s group was able to examine the entire brain, including the parietal cortex, the region that\u2019s considered the hub for processing numbers. However, Nieder and Mormann were limited by where patients\u2019 electrodes were placed; they closely examined single neurons in the medial temporal lobe, which is known for processing memory. \u201cIt\u2019s like looking for your lost keys under the lamppost,\u201d Butterworth said. The pair might have accidentally surveyed \u201cmemories for zero,\u201d he added, rather than the digit or idea itself. Nieder disagreed: That area of the brain, as well as many others, has also been found to be able to process numbers, he said.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the differences, the results excited Semenza. He had previously hypothesized that zero would have a place on the mental number line and not be a distinct concept from other numbers. \u201cI wish I would\u2019ve done these experiments myself,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>All the researchers agreed that these studies are only a start in uncovering how our brains process zero, and how to reconcile its different modes. Neither of the research groups, for example, looked at how the brain processes \u201czero\u201d as a written word.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow many different zero concepts are there, and how are we able to unify these ideas under one umbrella?\u201d Barton said. \u201cThis is well understood mathematically, but I\u2019d love to see more from the neurobiologists.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Nieder hopes to continue dabbling in the world of number neuroscience, Barnett has his sights set on the concept of absence. If he can find similarities in how the mind represents zero and absence, he said, then maybe Nieder\u2019s theory is right \u2014 that zero might have evolved from a more fundamental ability to grasp the idea that \u201cnothing\u201d really is \u201csomething.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>________________________________________________<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Yasemin-Saplakoglu.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-279591 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Yasemin-Saplakoglu-e1730439932810.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"80\" height=\"80\" \/><\/a><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/authors\/yasemin-saplakoglu\/\" class=\"theme__accent-hover transition--color \" ><em>Yasemin Saplakoglu <\/em><\/a><em>is a staff writer at <\/em>Quanta Newsletter.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/how-the-human-brain-contends-with-the-strangeness-of-zero-20241018\/\" >Go to Original &#8211; quantamagazine.org<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>18 Oct 2024 &#8211; Zero, which was invented late in history, is special among numbers. New studies are uncovering how the brain creates something out of nothing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":279591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[1012,260,305,2621,308,2622],"class_list":["post-279589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-for-thought","tag-food-for-thought-editorial-cartoon","tag-history","tag-mathematics","tag-numbers","tag-philosophy","tag-zero"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279589"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":279598,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279589\/revisions\/279598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}