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Number Neurons
Neurons encoding quantities, magnitudes, and numerical relationships.
About Number Neurons
Number neurons are surprisingly diverse. The intuition that 'numerical processing' is a single thing is wrong — our analysis reveals at least 7 distinct sub-types, each handling a different aspect of quantitative reasoning. Cardinal neurons fire on counts; Ordinal neurons on rankings; Fraction neurons on ratios; Era neurons on temporal quantities. More strikingly, Money neurons exist as a distinct cluster, suggesting that financial quantities have their own dedicated representation in language models. Number neurons collectively represent 5–13 percent of classified features depending on the model, with the variation driven largely by training data composition.
The 7 Number Elements
8 Nu
Cardinal
Encodes counting, whole numbers, and absolute quantities.
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Ordinal
Encodes rank, position, and order relationships.
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Magnitude
Encodes scale — large, small, vast, microscopic.
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Fraction
Encodes ratios, percentages, and partial quantities.
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Money
Encodes currency values, prices, and financial quantities.
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Statistic
Encodes statistical measures, averages, and probability estimates.
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General
Numerical neurons not fitting a specific sub-type.
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