Department of Behavioural and Cognitive Sciences (DBCS), Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE), Institute of Cognitive Science and Assessment (COSA), University of Luxembourg, Campus Belval, Maison des Sciences Humaines, Porte des Sciences 11, 4366, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
Center for Research in Cognitive Neuroscience (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Avenue Franklin Roosevelt 50 (CP 191), 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
Sci Rep. 2020 Oct 27;10(1):18376. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-75307-y.
Humans have a Number Sense that enables them to represent and manipulate numerical quantities. Behavioral data suggest that the acuity of numerical discrimination is predictively associated with math ability-especially in children-but some authors argued that its assessment is problematic. In the present study, we used frequency-tagged electroencephalography to objectively measure spontaneous numerical discrimination during passive viewing of dot or picture arrays in healthy adults. During 1-min sequences, we introduced periodic numerosity changes and we progressively increased the magnitude of such changes every ten seconds. We found significant brain synchronization to the periodic numerosity changes from the 1.2 ratio over medial occipital regions, and amplitude strength increased with the numerical ratio. Brain responses were reliable across both stimulus formats. Interestingly, electrophysiological responses also mirrored performances on a number comparison task and seemed to be linked to math fluency. In sum, we present a neural marker of numerical acuity that is passively evaluated in short sequences, independent of stimulus format and that reflects behavioural performances on explicit number comparison tasks.
人类有一种数字感，使他们能够表示和操作数量。行为数据表明，数字辨别力的敏锐度与数学能力有预测性的关联，尤其是在儿童中，但一些作者认为其评估存在问题。在本研究中，我们使用频率标记脑电图在健康成年人被动观看点或图片数组时客观地测量自发的数字辨别力。在 1 分钟的序列中，我们引入了周期性的数量变化，并每十秒逐渐增加这种变化的幅度。我们发现从中等枕区的 1.2 比率开始，大脑对周期性数量变化有显著的同步反应，振幅强度随数量比率而增加。大脑反应在两种刺激格式中都是可靠的。有趣的是，电生理反应也反映了数量比较任务的表现，并且似乎与数学流畅性有关。总之，我们提出了一种被动评估的数字敏锐度的神经标记物，它与刺激格式无关，反映了在明确的数量比较任务中的行为表现。
