A robust electrophysiological marker of spontaneous numerical discrimination

Abstract

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. During only one-minute 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. Crucially, electrophysiological responses significantly correlated with performance in a number comparison task and math fluency. This neural marker of numerical ability, passively evaluated in short sessions, could thus be of crucial interest to predict math ability in the future.