Yasemin Saplakoglu

But in medieval Europe, not everyone was thrilled about this concept of zero.

People had difficulty with accepting it. It was kind of scary. People were confused by it. Some thought of it as like the devil's number that challenged like really deeply held ideas. And, you know, because of the influence of the church, like philosophers and theologians associated nothing with like chaos and disorder.

People had difficulty with accepting it. It was kind of scary. People were confused by it. Some thought of it as like the devil's number that challenged like really deeply held ideas. And, you know, because of the influence of the church, like philosophers and theologians associated nothing with like chaos and disorder.

People had difficulty with accepting it. It was kind of scary. People were confused by it. Some thought of it as like the devil's number that challenged like really deeply held ideas. And, you know, because of the influence of the church, like philosophers and theologians associated nothing with like chaos and disorder.

One city, Florence, Italy, actually banned the number zero altogether.

One city, Florence, Italy, actually banned the number zero altogether.

One city, Florence, Italy, actually banned the number zero altogether.

It's a weird concept if you even think too deeply about it. It's like we're describing something that doesn't exist, right? We like see three chairs or we see four birds and we can count those and they're, you know, physically there. But we don't see zero birds or zero chairs. We just know that they're absent. But that is zero. That's, you know, an extra level of abstraction from the other thing.

It's a weird concept if you even think too deeply about it. It's like we're describing something that doesn't exist, right? We like see three chairs or we see four birds and we can count those and they're, you know, physically there. But we don't see zero birds or zero chairs. We just know that they're absent. But that is zero. That's, you know, an extra level of abstraction from the other thing.

It's a weird concept if you even think too deeply about it. It's like we're describing something that doesn't exist, right? We like see three chairs or we see four birds and we can count those and they're, you know, physically there. But we don't see zero birds or zero chairs. We just know that they're absent. But that is zero. That's, you know, an extra level of abstraction from the other thing.

kinds of numbers that we see around us all the time.

kinds of numbers that we see around us all the time.

kinds of numbers that we see around us all the time.

And that abstraction actually makes it harder for our brains to process. So today on the show, the neuroscience of the number zero. How do humans think about the concept of nothing? How do we find out? And what does that mean for our brains? You're

And that abstraction actually makes it harder for our brains to process. So today on the show, the neuroscience of the number zero. How do humans think about the concept of nothing? How do we find out? And what does that mean for our brains? You're

And that abstraction actually makes it harder for our brains to process. So today on the show, the neuroscience of the number zero. How do humans think about the concept of nothing? How do we find out? And what does that mean for our brains? You're

Okay, Yasmin, before we get into the complexity of zero, let's just start with the neuroscience of numbers in general. You've done some writing about this, like how our brains comprehend small numbers differently than large numbers. Can you tell us more about that?

Okay, Yasmin, before we get into the complexity of zero, let's just start with the neuroscience of numbers in general. You've done some writing about this, like how our brains comprehend small numbers differently than large numbers. Can you tell us more about that?

Okay, Yasmin, before we get into the complexity of zero, let's just start with the neuroscience of numbers in general. You've done some writing about this, like how our brains comprehend small numbers differently than large numbers. Can you tell us more about that?

Right. So this is actually kind of cool. We have what are called number neurons in the brain. So there are neurons that are tuned to specific numbers. There are neurons that favor, for example, the number five. And there are other neurons that favor the number seven. And so on. So that means that for the neurons that favor the number five, they'll fire more.