A "sixth sense" has been discovered by scientists-but it's not what you think. The "sixth sense" discovered by researchers is the innate human ability to sense numerical qualities-and some are much better at it than others.

Most people can only determine a finite number of objects in front of them. However, researchers have found that for some people, this "sixth" sense is nearly limitless.

Researchers at Utrecht University in the Netherlands discovered a small patch of neurons in the brain, right above each ear, that determines the "sixth sense". Most people can only sense about five objects...but for others, it's a different story altogether.

The region lights up when humans see a specific quantity, Ben Harvey, lead researcher of the study, explained.

"When we see a small number of items visually, we don't need to count them," Harvey told press "We just know how many there are straight away. One subject we measured was just beautiful. His brain responds all the way through the number eight."

Scientists are calling the number sense a kind of sixth sense-and they've discovered a specific region of the brain to go along with it. The study was published yesterday in the journal Science.

In order to conduct the study, the team showed participants a series of circles, starting with one and leading up to eight. As they did so, the researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to map participants' brains. The researchers found that a clump of about 80,000 neurons, around the size of a postage stamp, lit up in the brains of all eight subjects.

"Neurons that sensed the smaller numbers were located on one side of the patch while those that responded to larger numbers were on the other side," NPR reported.

"There are maps on the brain that represent the surface of the skin - or the surface of the retina," Harvey said. "These all reflect an external organ. We found the first map for a cognitive function. For seeing, there's more neurons that process the center of the field vision, where you have very sharp vision. For touch, you have huge hands mapped onto the brain, but smaller ones for legs."

In previous studies, it was found that neurons in the brains of monkeys will activate in much the same matter. Harvey and his colleagues decided to look for the same pattern in humans.

The team also discovered that more neurons are devoted to sense smaller quantities, which may explain why if toothpicks are dropped on the floor, most people would be able to sense smaller quantiies-say, five, rather than five hundred.

"The idea [of sensing toothpick quantities] is well known because of the movie 'Rain Man', but few such people exist. And we haven't scanned one," Harvey said. "So we don't really know whether they are doing the same task - that is, determining large numbers quickly and accurately, like we all do for small numbers. We would be very excited to meet one of those savants."

What do you think of the "Sixth Sense" for numbers? Sound off in the comments below!