Jessica F. Cantlon

Jessica Cantlon is the Ronald J. and Mary Ann Zdrojkowski Professor of Developmental Neuroscience at the Carnegie Mellon University. In 2017 she was selected as Time Person of the Year as one of the Silence Breakers.

Jessica F. Cantlon
Alma materDuke University (PhD)
Indiana University Bloomington (BSc)
Scientific career
InstitutionsCarnegie Mellon University
ThesisThe cognitive and neural roots of mathematical knowledge. (2007)
Doctoral advisorElizabeth M. Brannon

Early life and education

Cantlon studied anthropology at Indiana University Bloomington. She moved to Duke University for her graduate studies, where she worked with Elizabeth Brannon on the neural bases of mathematical knowledge. Early in her graduate studies, Cantlon trained herself in functional MRI, recognising that neuroimaging could be used to further our understanding of learning.[1] Her research involved investigations into the origin of the human and primate capacity for mathematics. Cantlon showed that monkeys can perform mental arithmetic.[2] Working with Brannon, Cantlon constructed a mathematical task that asked monkeys to deduce whether a series of numbers were larger or smaller than the ones that proceeded them.[3] This study showed that the mechanism that monkeys use to make comparisons are the same as the ones humans use.[3] To prove the numerical skills of monkeys, Cantlon constructed an experiment where macaques interacted with a touchscreen computer that displayed basic mathematical challenges.[2] Cantlon presented the same challenges to college students, who achieved 94% correct answers, whilst the monkeys were successful 76% of the time.[2] The monkeys and college students had the same reaction time.[2] She completed her doctorate in 2007.

Research and career

Cantlon joined the University of Rochester as an assistant professor in 2009. Here she studied the innate ability of humans to recognise and understand numbers.[4] Whilst the capacity for complicated symbolic mathematics appears to be unique to humans, it is not clear where this numerical prowess emerges from.[5] She combines psychological investigations with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to understand mathematical intuition.[4] She continued to study the mathematical abilities of monkeys, showing that even young baboons can differentiate between large and small numbers.[6]

In 2018 Cantlon was made the Zdrojkowski Chair in Developmental Neuroscience at Carnegie Mellon University. Using MRI, Cantlon studied activity in the intraparietal sulcus of young people during numerical tasks.[7] She demonstrated that boys and girls have identical capabilities.[8]

Academic service

Whilst working at the University of Rochester Cantlon was one of the whistleblowers, along with Richard Aslin and Celeste Kidd, who reported sexual harassment of students by another professor in 2016.[9] Cantlon objected to the university’s sexual harassment procedures when administrators closed the investigation of the professor without interviewing many of the students who were sexually harassed,[10][11] and then administrators retaliated against Cantlon and Aslin.[12] In 2017 Cantlon and Celeste Kidd and seven other faculty and students sued the University of Rochester, claiming the university broke sexual harassment laws and covered it up. In 2020, a federal judge ruled in favour of Cantlon and her co-plaintiffs, stating that there was sufficient evidence to move the case forward in court.[13][14] The court upheld 16 of the 17 plaintiffs’ claims.[15] After that federal court decision, the university initiated a settlement with Cantlon, Kidd, and the other plaintiffs for $9.4 million and issued a statement thanking the plaintiffs for bringing their concerns forward.[15][16][17][18] Cantlon left her position at the University of Rochester in 2018 and took up a position at Carnegie Mellon.[16]

Cantlon was publicly acknowledged for her contributions to combatting sexual harassment in science[19][20][21] and continues to speak out about the impact of sexual harassment on women’s careers, and the retaliation she experienced as a whistleblower.[22][23]

Awards and honours

Selected publications
  • Jessica F Cantlon; Elizabeth M Brannon; Elizabeth J Carter; Kevin A Pelphrey (11 April 2006). "Functional imaging of numerical processing in adults and 4-y-old children". PLOS Biology. 4 (5): e125. doi:10.1371/JOURNAL.PBIO.0040125. ISSN 1544-9173. PMC 1431577. PMID 16594732. S2CID 8927879. Wikidata Q21092777.
  • Chapter 7: Number Beyond Number. 31 December 2011. pp. 93–110. doi:10.1515/9783110319750.93. ISBN 978-3-110-31975-0. Wikidata Q116267808. {{cite book}}: |journal= ignored (help)
  • Jessica F Cantlon; Elizabeth M Brannon (1 May 2006). "Shared system for ordering small and large numbers in monkeys and humans". Psychological Science. 17 (5): 401–406. doi:10.1111/J.1467-9280.2006.01719.X. ISSN 0956-7976. PMID 16683927. S2CID 1781257. Wikidata Q48447688.

Personal life

Cantlon is married to Brad Mahon, a cognitive neuroscientist at Carnegie Mellon University.[9]

References
  1. "Jessica Cantlon seeks the origins of numerical thinking". Science News. 2016-09-21. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  2. "Monkeys Can Perform Mental Addition | Duke Health". corporate.dukehealth.org. 11 December 2007. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  3. "Monkey Math Machinery is Like Humans'". today.duke.edu. 31 October 2005. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  4. "The Brain: Humanity's Other Basic Instinct: Math". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  5. "Monkey math: Zoo baboons shed light on the brain's ability to understand numbers". phys.org. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  6. "Our Evolutionary Number Heritage". www.conquermaths.com. Archived from the original on 2020-03-02. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  7. "Brain scans don't lie: The minds of girls and boys are equal in math". WTHI News. Archived from the original on 2020-03-02. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  8. Hamilton, Jon (8 November 2019). "Math Looks The Same In The Brains Of Boys And Girls, Study Finds". www.wboi.org. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  9. "Jessica Cantlon". Post. Archived from the original on 2019-11-07. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  10. Issen, Laurel (November 2017). "University systems allow sexual harassers to thrive". Nature. 551 (7678): 7. Bibcode:2017Natur.551....7I. doi:10.1038/551007a. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 29094715. S2CID 4456518.
  11. North, Anna (2017-12-14). "This grad student says her professor harassed her. Her life changed. Did his?". Vox. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  12. "Unauthorized searches of professors' email create rift at Rochester". www.insidehighered.com. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  13. "Hidden Chapter: The Florian Jaeger case and its aftermath". RochesterFirst. 2023-01-06. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  14. "Docket for Aslin v. University of Rochester, 6:17-cv-06847 - CourtListener.com". CourtListener. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  15. "University of Rochester and plaintiffs settle sexual harassment lawsuit for $9.4 million". www.science.org. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  16. Mangan, Katherine (2018-03-11). "How a Harassment Controversy Tore a University Apart". The Chronicle of Higher Education. ISSN 0009-5982. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  17. Murphy, Justin. "Time Person of the Year honoree leaves university over sexual harassment inaction". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  18. "Rochester Settles Sex Harassment Case for $9.4M," Inside HigherEd, 30 March 2020.
  19. "How our SN 10 scientists have responded to tumultuous times". 2021-10-07. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
  20. "What Still Needs to Be Done to Break the Silence Surrounding Sexual Harassment". Time. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  21. Peace, Lauren. "UR whistleblowers among those awarded Time's Person of the Year". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  22. Gruber, June; Mendle, Jane; Lindquist, Kristen A.; Schmader, Toni; Clark, Lee Anna; Bliss-Moreau, Eliza; Akinola, Modupe; Atlas, Lauren; Barch, Deanna M.; Barrett, Lisa Feldman; Borelli, Jessica L.; Brannon, Tiffany N.; Bunge, Silvia A.; Campos, Belinda; Cantlon, Jessica (May 2021). "The Future of Women in Psychological Science". Perspectives on Psychological Science. 16 (3): 483–516. doi:10.1177/1745691620952789. ISSN 1745-6916. PMC 8114333. PMID 32901575.
  23. "Hidden Chapter: The Florian Jaeger case and its aftermath". RochesterFirst. 2023-01-06. Retrieved 2023-01-20.
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