Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Oxfordlaan 55, 6229 EV, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Sci Rep. 2021 Jun 3;11(1):11776. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-91303-2.
Fingers facilitate number learning and arithmetic processing in early childhood. The current study investigated whether images of early-learned, culturally-typical (canonical), finger montring patterns presenting smaller (2,3,4) or larger (7,8,9) quantities still facilitate adults' performance and neural processing in a math verification task. Twenty-eight adults verified solutions to simple addition problems that were shown in the form of canonical or non-canonical finger-number montring patterns while measuring Event Related Potentials (ERPs). Results showed more accurate and faster sum verification when sum solutions were shown by canonical (versus non-canonical) finger patterns. Canonical finger montring patterns 2-4 led to faster responses independent of whether they presented correct or incorrect sum solutions and elicited an enhanced early right-parietal P2p response, whereas canonical configurations 7-9 only facilitated performance in correct sum solution trials without evoking P2p effects. The later central-parietal P3 was enhanced to all canonical finger patterns irrespective of numerical range. These combined results provide behavioral and brain evidence for canonical cardinal finger patterns still having facilitating effects on adults' number processing. They further suggest that finger montring configurations of numbers 2-4 have stronger internalized associations with other magnitude representations, possibly established through their mediating role in the developmental phase in which children acquire the numerical meaning of the first four number symbols.
手指有助于儿童早期学习数字和进行算术运算。本研究调查了早期习得的、文化典型的（规范的）手指数量展示模式（表示较小数量的 2、3、4，或较大数量的 7、8、9）的图像是否仍然能够促进成人在数学验证任务中的表现和神经处理。二十八名成年人在测量事件相关电位（ERP）的同时，以规范或非规范的手指-数字展示模式验证简单加法问题的答案。结果表明，当和的解决方案以规范（而非非规范）的手指模式呈现时，验证更准确、更快。规范的手指展示模式 2-4 独立于它们呈现的是正确还是错误的和的解决方案，都会导致更快的反应，并引起增强的右顶叶 P2p 反应，而规范的配置 7-9 仅在正确和的解决方案试验中促进表现，而不会引起 P2p 效应。后来的中央-顶叶 P3 被所有规范的手指模式增强，而与数值范围无关。这些综合结果为规范基数手指模式对成人的数字处理仍具有促进作用提供了行为和大脑证据。它们进一步表明，数字 2-4 的手指展示模式具有更强的与其他数量表示的内在关联，这可能是通过它们在儿童获得前四个数字符号的数值意义的发展阶段中的中介作用而建立的。
