A shared numerical magnitude representation evidenced by the distance effect in frequency-tagging EEG

Marlair, Cathy; Crollen, Virginie; Lochy, Aliette

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-18811-7

Cited by 6 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Previous studies have demonstrated the automatic extraction of magnitude information from symbols in adults with frequency-tagging EEG centered around the right posterior sensors 23 33 , while in the present children study, the oddball responses were balanced bilaterally. One previous study found left lateralized SSR by when using number words and a combination of number words and digits in adults 34 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Automatic extraction of meaning from visual number symbols detected by frequency-tagged EEG in children

Rinsveld,

Schiltz

2024

Preprint

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Symbolic number representation and manipulation is key for successful mathematical learning. However, the mechanism by which at some point in development number symbols (i.e., 1, 2, 3, etc.) begin to automatically elicit useful meaning remains unresolved. Previous evidence highlighted that it is not possible to ignore the numerical magnitude when looking at number symbols, at least for adults. However, the neural mechanism behind the progressive automatization of symbol processing remains largely unknown, namely because these kinds of cognitive processes are difficult to isolate due to the general cognitive skills involved in any explicit task design. We thus developed an experimental paradigm specifically targeting the neural correlates of implicit magnitude representations by frequency-tagging magnitude changes within a visual stream of digits. Automatic magnitude processing was assessed by presenting a stream of number symbols with a frequency-tagged change of magnitude allowing to identify automatic categorization of the symbols by their magnitude in (pre)school-aged children. Stimuli were displayed with a sinusoidal contrast modulation at the frequency of 10 Hz and Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials were recorded. These electrophysiological measurements showed a neural synchronization at the harmonics of the frequency of the magnitude changes recorded on electrodes encompassing bilateral occipitoparietal regions. The current findings indicate that magnitude is a salient semantic feature of the number symbols, which is deeply associated to digits in long-term memory across development.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 56%

Automatic extraction of meaning from visual number symbols detected by frequency-tagged EEG in children

Rinsveld,

Schiltz

2024

Preprint

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“…This stimulus set created the highest amount of diversity within numeral exemplars (20 colored, hand-drawn per numeral), while decreasing the variability across numerals (each schema was applied to all numerals). Increasing variability intra-numerally and decreasing variability inter-numerally might decrease the relative importance of the latter, leading to a smaller impact of visual differences across numeral sets (e.g., Thorpe et al, 1996;Foldiak et al, 2004;Rossion et al, 2015;Georges, Guillaume & Schiltz, 2020;Marlair, Crollen & Lochy, 2022). We propose that increasing variability, such as modeled most strongly by the 20 font stimulus set here, is therefore a promising avenue in future research targeting conceptual processing.…”

Section: Identifying Conceptual Responses To Parity With Variable Sti...mentioning

confidence: 79%

“…In the 10 font set, the variable fonts Agency FB, Segoe Print, Informal Roman, Poor Richard, Gloucester MT Extra Condensed, Forte, Pristina, OCR A Extended, Vladimir Script, and Haettenschweiler were used, so that there were 10 exemplars of each numeral. Note that including variability by changes in font has been applied in previous studies with Arabic numerals (e.g., Cohen, 2009;Vogel, Goffin & Ansari, 2015;with EEG: Lochy & Schiltz, 2019;Finke et al, 2021;Marlair, Crollen & Lochy, 2022). The 10 mixed set was also comprised of 10 exemplars of each numeral, but designed to include even more variability across exemplars that included both fonts and drawings.…”

Section: Stimulus Setsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The copyright holder for this preprint (which this version posted July 4, 2023. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.07.04.547627 doi: bioRxiv preprint and/or numbers: Cohen, 2009;Lochy & Schiltz, 2019;Volfart et al, 2020;Marlair, Crollen & Lochy, 2022). Taken together, the limited variability within symbolic number exemplars, and the high variability across number exemplars, leaves responses highly susceptible to stimulus confounds.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Identifying conceptual neural responses to symbolic numerals

Retter,

Eraßmy,

Schiltz

2023

Preprint

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Neural processing of numerical concepts may be measured in humans automatically, without a related numerical task. However, the extent to which neural responses to symbolic numbers are due to physical stimulus confounds independently of conceptual representations remains unknown. Here, we targeted conceptual responses to parity (even vs. odd), using an electroencephalographic (EEG) frequency-tagging approach with a symmetry/asymmetry paradigm. Fifty second sequences of Arabic numerals (2-9) were presented at 7.5 Hz; odd and even numbers were alternated, so that differential responses to parity would be captured at 3.75 Hz (7.5 Hz/2). Parity responses were probed with four different stimulus sets, increasing in intra-numeral stimulus variability. Moreover, two control conditions were tested for each stimulus set, comprised of non-conceptual numeral alternations (strong control, for small inter-group physical differences: 2,3,6,7 vs. 4,5,8 and 9; weak control, for large physical differences: 2,4,5,7 vs. 3,6,8,9). Significant asymmetrical responses at 3.75 Hz were found over the occipitotemporal cortex to all conditions, thus even for arbitrary numeral groups. The weak control condition elicited the largest response in the stimulus set with the lowest level of variability (1 font). Only in the stimulus set with the highest level of variability (20 hand-drawn, colored exemplars per numeral) did the response to parity surpass both control conditions. These findings show that physical differences across small sets of Arabic numerals can strongly influence, and even account for, automatic brain responses. However, carefully designed control conditions and highly variable stimulus sets may be used towards identifying truly conceptual neural responses.

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“…If this is correct, future work should identify how many different items should be used in order to avoid these statistical learning effects. Since there are areas of research in which it is not possible to use many different items (e.g., in numerical cognition, when using Arabic digits as stimuli, there are maximum 10 elements (1 to 9, and 0)), future studies with FPVS-oddball like paradigms should be particularly careful, using changes in surface features of the stimuli to reduce/eliminate mere statistical regularity effects (see e.g., Marlair et al, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linguistic and attentional factors – not statistical regularities – contribute to word-selective neural responses with FPVS-oddball paradigms

Lochy

Rossion

Ralph

et al. 2023

Preprint

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In recent years, a fast periodic oddball-like paradigm has proved to be highly sensitive to measure category-selective visual word representation and characterize its development and neural basis. In this approach, deviant words are inserted in rapid streams of base stimuli every nth occurrence (e.g., Lochy et al., 2015). To understand the nature of word-selective representation and improve its measurement, we tested 22 adults with EEG, assessing the impact of discrimination coarseness (deviant words among nonwords or pseudowords), the relative frequency of item repetition (set size or item repetition controlled for deviant vs. base stimuli), and the nature of the orthogonal attentional task (focused or deployed spatial attention). In all stimulation sequences, base stimuli were presented at 10 Hz, with words inserted every 5 stimuli generating word-selective responses in the EEG spectra at 2 Hz and harmonics. Word-selective occipito-temporal responses were robust at the individual level, left-lateralized and sensitive to wordlikeness of base stimuli, being stronger in the coarser categorical contrast (among nonwords). Amplitudes were not affected by item repetition, showing that implicit statistical learning about a relative token frequency difference for deviant stimuli does not contribute to the word-selective neural activity, at least with relatively large stimulus set sizes (n=30). Finally, the broad attentional deployment task produced stronger responses than a focused task, an important finding for future studies in the field. Taken together, these results confirm the linguistic nature of word-selective responses, strengthen the validity and increase the sensitivity of the FPVS-EEG oddball paradigm to measure visual word recognition.

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A shared numerical magnitude representation evidenced by the distance effect in frequency-tagging EEG

Cited by 6 publications

References 46 publications

Automatic extraction of meaning from visual number symbols detected by frequency-tagged EEG in children

Automatic extraction of meaning from visual number symbols detected by frequency-tagged EEG in children

Identifying conceptual neural responses to symbolic numerals

Linguistic and attentional factors – not statistical regularities – contribute to word-selective neural responses with FPVS-oddball paradigms

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