Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, PR China.
Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science of Ministry of Education, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210096, PR China; School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2018 Jun;128:81-92. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2018.04.005. Epub 2018 Apr 16.
Previous neuroimaging research investigating dissociation between single-digit addition and multiplication has suggested that the former placed more reliance on the visuo-spatial processing whereas the latter on the verbal processing. However, there has been little exploration into the disassociation in spatio-temporal dynamics of the oscillatory brain activity in specific frequency bands during the two arithmetic operations. To address this issue, the electroencephalogram (EEG) data were recorded from 19 participants engaged in a delayed verification arithmetic task. By analyzing oscillatory EEG activity in theta (5-7 Hz) and lower alpha frequency (9-10 Hz) bands, we found different patterns of oscillatory brain activity between single-digit addition and multiplication during the early processing stage (0-400 ms post-operand onset). Experiment results in this study showed a larger phasic increase of theta-band power for addition than for multiplication in the midline and the right frontal and central regions during the operator and operands presentation intervals, which was extended to the right parietal and the right occipito-temporal regions during the interval immediately after the operands presentation. In contrast, during multiplication higher phase-locking in lower alpha band was evident in the centro-parietal regions during the operator presentation, which was extended to the left fronto-central and anterior regions during the operands presentation. Besides, we found stronger theta phase synchrony between the parietal areas and the right occipital areas for single-digit addition than for multiplication during operands encoding. These findings of oscillatory brain activity extend the previous observations on functional dissociation between the two arithmetic operations.
先前的神经影像学研究表明，在单个数字的加法和乘法之间存在分离，前者更多地依赖于视空间处理，而后者更多地依赖于语言处理。然而，对于这两种算术运算在特定频段的振荡脑活动的时空动态分离，研究还很少。为了解决这个问题，我们记录了 19 名参与者在延迟验证算术任务中的脑电图（EEG）数据。通过分析 theta（5-7Hz）和较低 alpha 频率（9-10Hz）频段的振荡 EEG 活动，我们发现单个数字的加法和乘法在早期处理阶段（操作数出现后 0-400ms）之间存在不同的振荡脑活动模式。本研究的实验结果表明，在运算符和操作数呈现期间，中线和右额和中央区域的 theta 频段功率的相位增加幅度大于乘法，在操作数呈现后立即的间隔内，这种情况扩展到右顶叶和右枕颞区域。相比之下，在乘法中，在运算符呈现期间，中央顶叶区域的较低 alpha 频段的相位锁定更高，在操作数呈现期间，这种情况扩展到左额中央和前区域。此外，我们发现在操作数编码期间，单个数字的加法比乘法的顶叶区域和右枕叶区域之间的 theta 相位同步更强。这些振荡脑活动的发现扩展了先前关于两种算术运算之间功能分离的观察。
