Supramodal processing of discrete quantity information in humans

以前的工作已经确定了人类模拟量处理的非通道神经特征，这是根据大规模振荡脑电活动的参数调制来实现的。独立地，在以前的猴子工作中，已经报道了离散量(即，数值)的超模式表示，然而，对于离散量的处理在多大程度上也可能涉及到大规模的大脑振荡，仍然没有定论。在这里，一系列的人类脑电研究旨在研究视觉、听觉和触觉通道中离散数量信息的编码、记忆和比较。除了传统的时频分析外，还将使用一种基于卷积建模的新分析方法来研究离散感觉证据到抽象量信息的在线整合。这些在不同感觉模式内和跨不同感觉模式的分析，有望对大规模振荡机制产生初步的见解，这些机制可能低于日常人类认知中离散数量的抽象处理。

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.