biostudies-literatureKim GNational Research Foundation of Koreaeabd6127https://www.ebi.ac.uk/biostudies/studies/S-EPMC7775775biostudies-literatureUnknown7(1)Number sense, the ability to estimate numerosity, is observed in naïve animals, but how this cognitive function emerges in the brain remains unclear. Here, using an artificial deep neural network that models the ventral visual stream of the brain, we show that number-selective neurons can arise spontaneously, even in the complete absence of learning. We also show that the responses of these neurons can induce the abstract number sense, the ability to discriminate numerosity independent of low-level visual cues. We found number tuning in a randomly initialized network originating from a combination of monotonically decreasing and increasing neuronal activities, which emerges spontaneously from the statistical properties of bottom-up projections. We confirmed that the responses of these numbScience advancesVisual number sense in untrained deep neural networks.PMC7775775NRF-2019R1A2C4069863NRF-2019M3E5D2A01058328Song MKim GJang JPaik SBBaek SfalseVisual number sense in untrained deep neural networks.Number sense, the ability to estimate numerosity, is observed in naïve animals, but how this cognitive function emerges in the brain remains unclear. Here, using an artificial deep neural network that models the ventral visual stream of the brain, we show that number-selective neurons can arise spontaneously, even in the complete absence of learning. We also show that the responses of these neurons can induce the abstract number sense, the ability to discriminate numerosity independent of low-level visual cues. We found number tuning in a randomly initialized network originating from a combination of monotonically decreasing and increasing neuronal activities, which emerges spontaneously from the statistical properties of bottom-up projections. We confirmed that the responses of these numb2021-01-01T00:00:00Z2021 Jan2025-04-26T23:59:52.334Z2025-04-06T17:43:47.544ZS-EPMC77757753352385110.1126/sciadv.abd6127