Editing Subitizing (section)

==Brain structures involved in subitizing and counting==
The work on the [[enumeration]] of afterimages<ref name="atkinson"/><ref name="simon"/> supports the view that different cognitive processes operate for the enumeration of elements inside and outside the subitizing range, and as such raises the possibility that subitizing and counting involve different brain circuits. However, [[functional imaging]] research has been interpreted both to support different<ref name="corbetta">{{Cite journal |author1=Corbetta, M. |author2=Shulman, G.L. |author3=Miezin, F.M. |author4=Petersen, S.E. |name-list-style=amp |year=1995 |title=Superior parietal cortex activation during spatial attention shifts and visual feature conjunction |journal=Science |volume=270 |pages=802–805 |doi=10.1126/science.270.5237.802 |pmid=7481770 |issue=5237|bibcode=1995Sci...270..802C |s2cid=22131790 }}</ref> and shared processes.<ref name="Piazza">{{Cite journal|pmid=11798277|year=2002|last1=Piazza|first1=M|last2=Mechelli|first2=A|last3=Butterworth|first3=B|last4=Price|first4=CJ|title=Are subitizing and counting implemented as separate or functionally overlapping processes?|volume=15|issue=2|pages=435–46|doi=10.1006/nimg.2001.0980|journal=NeuroImage|s2cid=13959500|name-list-style=amp}}</ref>

===Bálint's syndrome===
Social theory supporting the view that subitizing and counting may involve functionally and anatomically distinct brain areas comes from patients with [[simultanagnosia]], one of the key components of [[Bálint's syndrome]].<ref name="bálint">{{Cite journal |author=Balint, R. |year=1909 |title=Seelenlahmung des 'Schauens', optische Ataxie, raumliche Storung der Aufmerksamkeit |journal=Monatsschr Psychiatr Neurol |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=51–66| doi=10.1159/000210464 |language=de|url=https://zenodo.org/record/1448605 }}</ref> Patients with this disorder suffer from an inability to perceive visual scenes properly, being unable to localize objects in space, either by looking at the objects, pointing to them, or by verbally reporting their position.<ref name="bálint"/> Despite these dramatic symptoms, such patients are able to correctly recognize individual objects.<ref>{{Cite journal |author1=Robertson, L. |author2=Treisman, A. |author3=Freidman-Hill, S. |author4=Grabowecky, M. |name-list-style=amp |year=1997 |title=The interaction of spatial and object pathways: Evidence from Balint's Syndrome |journal=Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=295–317 |doi=10.1162/jocn.1997.9.3.295 |pmid=23965009|s2cid=27076617 }}</ref> Crucially, people with simultanagnosia are unable to enumerate objects outside the subitizing range, either failing to count certain objects, or alternatively counting the same object several times.<ref name="Dehaene, S 1997">{{Cite book |author=Dehaene, S. |year=1997 |title=The number sense: How the mind creates mathematics |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0195110043 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/numbersensehowmi0000deha }}</ref>

However, people with simultanagnosia have no difficulty enumerating objects within the subitizing range.<ref>{{Cite journal |author1=Dehaene, S. |author2=Cohen, L. |name-list-style=amp |year=1994 |title=Dissociable mechanisms of subitizing and counting: neuropsychological evidence from simultanagnosic patients |journal=Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance |volume=20 |issue=5 |pages=958–975 |doi= 10.1037/0096-1523.20.5.958|pmid=7964531 }}</ref> The disorder is associated with bilateral damage to the [[parietal lobe]]<!-- Does not exist in the bibliography: Holmes, 1918; Holmes & Horrax, 1919 -->, an area of the brain linked with spatial shifts of attention.<ref name="corbetta"/> These neuropsychological results are consistent with the view that the process of counting, but not that of subitizing, requires active shifts of attention. However, recent research has questioned this conclusion by finding that attention also affects subitizing.<ref>{{Cite journal|pmid=18813345|year=2008|last1=Vetter|first1=P|last2=Butterworth|first2=B|last3=Bahrami|first3=B|title=Modulating attentional load affects numerosity estimation: Evidence against a pre-attentive subitizing mechanism|volume=3|issue=9|pages=e3269|doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0003269|pmc=2533400|journal=PLOS ONE|editor1-last=Warrant|editor1-first=Eric|name-list-style=amp|bibcode=2008PLoSO...3.3269V|doi-access=free}}</ref>

===Imaging enumeration===
A further source of research on the neural processes of subitizing compared to counting comes from [[positron emission tomography]] (PET) research on normal observers. Such research compares the brain activity associated with enumeration processes inside (i.e., 1–4 items) for subitizing, and outside (i.e., 5–8 items) for counting.<ref name="corbetta"/><ref name="Piazza"/>

Such research finds that within the subitizing and counting range activation occurs bilaterally in the occipital extrastriate cortex and superior parietal lobe/intraparietal sulcus. This has been interpreted as evidence that shared processes are involved.<ref name="Piazza"/> However, the existence of further activations during counting in the right inferior frontal regions, and the [[anterior cingulate]] have been interpreted as suggesting the existence of distinct processes during counting related to the activation of regions involved in the shifting of attention.<ref name="corbetta"/>