Event-related brain potentials to violations of arithmetic syntax represented by place value structure
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1
University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
We dissociated ERP markers of semantic (numerical distance) vs. syntactic (place value) incongruence in the domain of arithmetic. Participants verified additions with four-digit numbers. Semantic incongruencies elicited the N400 ERP effect. A centro-parietal (putative P600) effect to place-value violations was not related to arithmetic syntax. Rather, this effect was an enlarged P3b reflecting different surprise values of place value vs. non-place value violations. This potential confound should be considered in numerical cognition experiments. The latency of the N400 and P3a effects were differentially affected by place-value analysis. The amplitude of the P3a and that of a fronto-central positive effect (FP600) was sensitive to place value analysis and digit content. Results suggest that ERPs can index the syntactical analysis of multi-digit numbers. Both ERP and behavioral data confirmed that multi-digit numbers were decomposed into their constituent digits, rather than evaluated holistically.
Keywords:
Arithmetic syntax,
Neural Bases
Conference:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI), Palma, Mallorca, Spain, 25 Sep - 29 Sep, 2011.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Poster Sessions: Neural Bases of Arithmetics and Numerosity
Citation:
Szucs
D and
Soltesz
F
(2011). Event-related brain potentials to violations of arithmetic syntax represented by place value structure.
Conference Abstract:
XI International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON XI).
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2011.207.00100
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Received:
16 Nov 2011;
Published Online:
25 Nov 2011.
*
Correspondence:
Dr. Denes Szucs, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, ds377@cam.ac.uk