Event‐related potentials affected by spatial frequencies of background visual pattern during a cognitive task

Abstract

Spatial variation in luminance, which is one of the most important attributes of a visual image, may cause characteristic reactions in higher order brain functions. We aim to characterize the event‐related potentials (ERPs) associated with a cognitive task (simple addition) in terms of how they are influenced by the spatial frequencies of the background visual pattern. We use vertically striped visual stimuli with embedded numbers (0–9) and different spatial frequency characteristics (white noise, 1/f, 1/f2, and 1/f3). The subjects are instructed to perform two tasks: an addition task that involved adding numbers presented as visual stimuli, and a reference task wherein the numbers were not added. In ERPs averaged over four types of visual stimuli for the addition task, positive components peaking at latencies of 182 ms in the central and frontal areas and 360 ms in the parietal area are observed, and significant differences are found between ERPs for the addition and reference tasks. In the addition task, the 182‐ms latency component shows a larger positive amplitude for 1/f3 compared with other stimuli in the right parietal‐occipital‐temporal area (P4, T6, O2), and the 360‐ms latency component tends to show a larger positive amplitude for 1/f compared with other stimuli in the parietal‐central area (C3, P3, Pz). We conclude that spatial frequency characteristics influence ERPs associated with the retrieval of arithmetic data and certain neural activities that accompany simple forms of addition. © 2013 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Oscillatory neural activity associated with cognitive processes affected by spatial frequency

“…Our previous study concluded that spatial frequency characteristics influenced the ERPs associated with the neural activity accompanying simple addition 4. In this study, additional analyses investigated inter‐trial variances using wavelet coefficients to discuss novel findings for ERD/ERS.…”

“…Because the EEG data obtained from our previous experiment is used in this study, the visual stimulus, task, subjects, and EEG recordings are all as described in detail in our previous paper 4. Briefly, four types of vertically striped visual stimuli were presented to subjects.…”

“…2. Stimulus size, the representation sequence, and duration for tasks used in the experiment [4]. Briefly, four types of vertically striped visual stimuli were presented to subjects.…”

“…Collectively, these methods of quantifying evoked neural activity represent powerful tools to describe and understand neural dynamics. Since these analyses were not included in our previous paper that described the neural activity patterns [4] it may be possible to reveal other interesting results by analyzing the oscillatory activity compared with ERPs. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to characterize the oscillatory changes in neural activity associated with cognitive processes that are affected by the spatial frequency of a visual stimulus during simple calculation tasks by using electroencephalography (EEG).…”

“…Several studies have characterized the relationship between the spatial frequency of a stimulus and the evoked neural activity 1–3. In our previous study 4, we evaluated how the spatial frequency characteristics of a visual stimulus, as indexed by the slope ( β ) of its power spectral density, affected the event‐related potentials (ERPs) observed during a simple cognitive addition task. We suggested that low spatial frequency components may preferentially participate in the neural activity associated with the retrieval of arithmetic data, and that the 1/ f frequency may be optimally tuned to play important roles in diverse neural processes.…”