Supramodal processing of discrete quantity information in humans

先前的工作已经确定了人类模拟量处理的模态独立的神经特征，就大规模振荡脑电图活动的参数调制而言。独立地，在先前的猴子研究中，离散量（即数字）的超模态表示已被报道，然而，离散量处理在多大程度上也可能涉及大规模的大脑振荡。在这里，一系列的人类脑电图研究旨在研究在视觉、听觉和触觉模式下离散数量信息的编码、记忆和比较。除了传统的时频分析外，本文还将采用一种基于卷积建模的新颖分析方法来研究离散感官证据与抽象数量信息的在线整合。在不同的感觉模式内部和之间的分析，有望产生对大规模振荡机制的基本见解，这些机制可能是日常人类认知中离散量抽象处理的基础。

Previous work has identified a modality-independent neural signature of analogue quantity processing in humans, in terms of parametric modulations of large-scale oscillatory EEG activity. Independently, in previous monkey work, a supramodal representation of discrete quantity (i.e., numerosities) has been reported, however leaving open to what extent discrete quantity processing may also involve large-scale brain oscillations. Here, a series of human EEG studies is designed to investigate the encoding, memorizing, and comparison of discrete quantity information in the visual, auditory, and tactile modalities. In addition to conventional time-frequency analyses, a novel analysis approach based on convolution modeling will be employed to examine the online integration of discrete sensory evidence into abstract quantity information. The analyses, within and across different sensory modalities, are expected to yield elementary insights into the large-scale oscillatory mechanisms that may underly the abstract processing of discrete quantity in everyday human cognition.